1, the basic principles of determining the minimum living standard
Because different countries have different levels of social and economic development, ethnic characteristics, living habits and other aspects, we should proceed from the actual situation of our country when calculating the minimum living standard for our residents. China is a developing country with a large population and a low level of economic development. The territory is vast, and the development level of different places is very inconsistent; There is a big gap between the rich and the poor, and there are many poor people. We believe that in this context, the following main principles should be adhered to in determining the minimum living standard for urban residents in China.
(1) The principle of "minimum living guarantee+basic medical assistance"
The minimum living security system is to ensure the minimum living standard of residents, so whether it can meet the basic living needs of residents should be the first principle to determine the standard. In the process of calculating the minimum living security standard, no matter which specific method is adopted, such as calorie intake method or vegetable basket method, the level and content of residents' minimum living security needs should be carefully and scientifically investigated.
There are two methods to investigate the minimum living needs of residents. One is to give the poor an opportunity to discuss the standards and ensure their right to express their needs. Second, through a representative sample survey, we can understand the views of the general public on "what is the minimum living needs". In practical work, we should combine two methods to determine the level and content of minimum living security. It is wrong for government officials to unilaterally decide safety standards.
An important factor to measure whether the minimum living standard is reasonable is whether the basic living needs of poor residents can be guaranteed, especially some special needs of this group. A study on poor residents in Beijing shows that the health status of poor family members is worrying. Only 4 1% is healthy, 25.2% is generally healthy (that is, there is no obvious disease), 6.7% is weak, 13% is common disease, 14. 1% is serious disease, and the last three items account for 33.8%. At the same time, 67.9% of poor families have no money to see a doctor. In addition, 30.4% have no money to provide children with education beyond senior high school, 20. 1% have no money to provide children with nine-year compulsory education, and 24.4% have no money to buy necessary stationery. [ 1]
Health needs and education needs are the most vigorous needs in society at present, because they are directly related to a person's future development. As can be seen from the above data, the health needs and education needs of poor residents are even stronger, because ensuring their health and education is an important condition for them to get rid of poverty. In the survey, we found that many people are poor because of illness and have been poor for a long time because of health reasons; There are still some people who can't improve their human capital, their income and their lives because they can't receive proper education.
It can be seen that the minimum living needs of residents include not only food, clothing, housing and transportation, but also the basic living needs of children from poor families such as education, medical care and transportation. Meeting these needs can promote some poor families to restore their ability to participate in social competition and improve their living conditions through their own efforts.
However, considering the uncertainty of residents' health needs and the high risk of meeting their health needs, the funds for residents' health security cannot be dispersed into their minimum living allowance. Therefore, we propose a principle of "minimum living needs+basic medical assistance", that is, the minimum living security system should consider meeting the medical needs of poor residents, but it cannot directly disperse funds to the security objects like meeting other needs. In the implementation, we can consider establishing a medical assistance fund for low-income residents, which can be used uniformly at a certain level; Or in combination with the medical insurance reform, the government should handle appropriate medical insurance for the low-income residents. These expenses are all included in the subsistence allowance funds and included in the fiscal budget.
(2) the principle of financial affordability
The minimum living security system is a part of social relief. In the existing social security system, social relief is the lowest level of security, and its source of funds directly depends on finance. If the minimum living standard is set too low, it will be difficult to meet the basic needs of the minimum living objects and cannot achieve the purpose of "helping others and helping themselves"; If the standard is set too high, it will lead to a situation that the finance can't afford it, and the guarantee will only stay in words. Therefore, the determination of the minimum living standard should take into account the financial affordability. Especially at the present stage of our country, the financial situation is not very good, especially in some places, and it can even be said that it is beyond our means.
Therefore, it must be emphasized that financial affordability should be taken into account when formulating the minimum living standard. But on the other hand, it is not allowed to arbitrarily lower the minimum living standard on the grounds of limited financial capacity. Because in the implementation of the current system, the participation of low-income objects is very insufficient, which can not restrict the government's behavior, so there is indeed a phenomenon that the government determines the security standards at will. In some places, government officials have a strong sense of gifts and do not know enough about the nature of subsistence allowances. They often have the idea of "just give a little", ignoring that ensuring basic living needs is a basic right of citizens.
In fact, even at the current level of fiscal revenue, a large number of subsistence allowances can be guaranteed by reforming the social security system and optimizing the government's fiscal expenditure structure. For example, by establishing a social security system with social assistance as the core, rationalizing the relationship between various kinds of assistance, avoiding repeated assistance and reducing unnecessary government expenditures, a lot of money can be squeezed out for subsistence allowances.
Considering the relationship between the level of subsistence allowances expenditure and the financial situation, some adjustments should be made to the practice of sharing subsistence allowances funds at all levels in some areas. Because some local grassroots finances are really difficult, we should consider the transfer payment from the higher level finance.
(3) The principle of linking the relevant systems of residents' living security.
Under the current system, residents' living security actually involves several related systems, such as the minimum wage for workers, the basic living expenses for laid-off workers, unemployment benefits and the minimum living security. Theoretically, these systems all have their own protection targets and corresponding funding regulations.
The minimum wage standard is formulated by the Ministry of Labor to meet the needs of the development of socialist market economy, protect the basic life of individual workers and their family members and the legitimate rights and interests of workers, and promote the improvement of workers' quality and fair competition in enterprises. 65438-0993 The Ministry of Labor issued the Provisions on the Minimum Wage of Enterprises. By the end of July 2000, local minimum wage standards had been set in all regions of China except Tibet, and enterprises were required to strictly implement them. This can be said to be the first institutional guarantee for residents' life.
The basic living expenses of laid-off workers in state-owned enterprises are a safeguard measure for laid-off workers in state-owned enterprises, that is, the living expenses of laid-off workers are lower than the minimum wage but higher than unemployment benefits. Although the word "laid-off" was abolished from 200 1 1, state-owned enterprises no longer set up re-employment centers in principle and let new employees enter the centers, but the basic living expenses guarantee is still playing a role. According to the previous regulations, laid-off workers from state-owned enterprises can stay in the re-employment center for two years and enjoy basic living expenses. Those who fail to achieve re-employment after two years will become unemployed. The basic living expenses of laid-off workers are the second institutional guarantee for residents' life.
Unemployment benefits are aimed at the unemployed, aiming at ensuring their livelihood. Generally, it is a sum of money paid jointly by the employer and the laborer before the unemployed lose their jobs. Once an employee loses his job, he has the right to receive unemployment benefits, but the amount is directly related to the amount he has insured and the number of years he has insured. Relevant policies stipulate that ensuring the unemployed receive unemployment benefits in full and on time is the third system guarantee for residents' life.
The so-called minimum living guarantee is the last institutional guarantee for residents' lives. Therefore, in a sense, its standard is preset, that is, it cannot be higher than the previous safety line standard, regardless of whether it can really meet the basic needs of residents. The minimum living security is funded by the government finance, which provides security for the "three noes" people, individuals and families who still can't meet the basic living needs after enjoying the previous security. It is often said to be the "last safety net". An important prerequisite for this network to work is that the first few lines of defense have effectively played a role. If there are loopholes or even collapses in the previous defense line, there will be too many people who need protection. These people can't support themselves by the "last safety net", which is obviously untenable. An obvious reason is that this situation was not taken into account when designing the system and the necessary funds were provided. What should I do if I prepare a table of rice and two tables of guests come?
At present, the general idea is to effectively implement different levels of security through various means to reduce the pressure of the minimum living security system. The starting point of this idea is good, but it is difficult to implement. A key issue is that the foundation supporting the first three lines of defense is weakening. For example, the surplus labor force is impacting the minimum wage guarantee, and the decline in enterprise benefits is impacting the basic living expenses guarantee for laid-off workers (the emergence of laid-off workers is largely due to the poor enterprise benefits). The inherent disadvantages of the unemployment insurance system restrict the normal play of its unemployment insurance function, and the mutual promotion caused by the conflict of interests among departments makes it too difficult to connect the various security lines.
Therefore, we should change the strategy of connecting the security lines, properly consider the merger of the security lines, design a social security system with social assistance as the core, and set up a special department for management to centralize funds, functions and administration to ensure the basic livelihood of residents. Especially when determining the minimum living standard, we should first consider the actual needs of residents and eliminate the negative constraints of the existing security line.
(4) the principle of simplifying the calculation of safeguard standards
In view of the fact that the current subsistence allowance system depends on the promotion of civil affairs departments at all levels and is generally implemented by grassroots residents' committees, it is necessary to strengthen training so that relevant personnel can master the professional knowledge of subsistence allowance, especially the calculation and adjustment technology of security standards.
In the process of implementing the minimum living standard, the calculation of the standard is a key link. How to use a simple, scientific and reasonable method to measure the minimum living standard, so that ordinary people can understand the truth and use it independently, is a very important work. At present, many calculation methods developed by relevant personnel are simple and complex, which provide a certain choice. In practice, we should avoid complexity and simplification, but we must ensure that it is scientific and reasonable. Some seemingly simple and easy-to-operate methods actually lack scientific basis.
(5) the principle of dynamic adjustment of safeguard standards
The minimum living standard in a specific period is always related to the social and economic development level, consumption structure and price level at that time. With the changes of these factors, the minimum living standard should be adjusted accordingly. Therefore, the minimum living standard should be dynamic, and on the whole, it is constantly improving. If it cannot be adjusted in time, it will lead to a relatively low standard.
Take the United States as an example. The poverty line set by the American government at 1963 is roughly equivalent to half of the middle income of residents. However, in 198 1, due to the adjustment corresponding to price changes, the poverty line determined by the government is far lower than the poverty standard determined by the definition of relative poverty (half of the residents' middle income is $65,438 +03 162), which is only $9,287, with a difference of $3,875, exceeding the official standard by 40%. The reason for the gap is that the absolute level of middle income of American residents has been greatly improved. [2]
Generally speaking, the following factors should be given priority in adjusting the minimum living standard:
First, the life cycle of poor families. At different stages of the life cycle, families often show different family structures and have different needs. Therefore, for poor families, according to the age, employment and health status of family members, the family security standard can be adjusted appropriately, which can be improved or reduced. This requires that we should pay close attention to the changes of family factors when implementing the minimum living allowance system.
Second, the price change factor. In the practice of the minimum living security system, except for a few places that provide assistance in kind, most places provide assistance in the form of cash subsidies. With the change of price level, the purchasing power of cash will also change, or increase or decrease in value, which will have a positive or negative impact on the life of the payee. Therefore, when calculating the minimum living standard in different periods, a price adjustment coefficient should be substituted, so as to adjust the absolute value of the assistance amount with the price change. Generally speaking, it can be adjusted once a year. In the case of smooth price information and other conditions, it can even be adjusted once every six months, three months or monthly.
Third, changes in the overall living standards and lifestyles of society. With the improvement or decrease of the overall living standard of society, the minimum living standard should be adjusted accordingly. In the social and economic recession, the standards should be lowered as much as possible so that all members of society can share the impact of the economic recession; With the rapid development of social economy, the minimum living standard should be raised so that all members of society can enjoy prosperity, which can reflect social equity.
In addition, with the change of lifestyle, the consumption structure and content of residents will also change, so it is necessary to constantly examine and approve the list of residents' daily necessities, and even consider the Engel coefficient that changes with the change of lifestyle, so as to properly adjust the minimum living security standard.
(6) the principle of "government minimum living guarantee+social support"
In view of the universality of people's living needs and the reality of unitization and departmentalization of resources in the transition period, it is impossible for Chinese urban residents to rely solely on the government's minimum living security system or civil affairs departments.
As far as the current reality is concerned, the low-income funds of civil affairs departments are limited, and it is impossible to formulate higher standards of cash assistance, to effectively meet the various needs of many low-income objects, and even to meet their basic living needs. Therefore, while maintaining a low cash subsidy standard, some practical measures should be taken to mobilize the resources of other units and departments to solve the difficulties faced by the recipients in medical care, education and social participation. In our investigation, we found that an important "experience" of cities with good subsistence allowances is to mobilize the departments of industry and commerce, taxation, education, housing management, health, water and electricity to introduce preferential policies to meet the corresponding demand for subsistence allowances. For example, Beijing residents enjoy nearly 10 other benefits in addition to the minimum living allowance in 290 yuan every month. Without social support, the benefits of the subsistence allowance system will be limited.
On the other hand, even if the government allocates enough funds for subsistence allowances, it is of little significance to improve the quality of life of the insured if it still adopts the way of simple cash assistance. Because people are social, they need to participate in society and need social attention. In other words, some spiritual needs of people can not be met by simple cash. Therefore, it is necessary to establish a certain mechanism to attract low-income recipients to return to society and feel the warmth of society, so as to avoid being alienated and marginalized from society because of enjoying low-income allowances. This work needs to be done by all sectors of society, especially the development of professional social work institutions, which is solved by professionals through arranging a series of activities. In this sense, helping people in need is indeed a social project.
2, the minimum living standard reference index system
In practical work, it is difficult to determine the minimum living standard of a country. The "minimum living allowance" here is very flexible, influenced by social and cultural factors such as living habits, folk customs, national characteristics and religious beliefs. Therefore, the minimum living security always has its regionality and times.
Nevertheless, there is a certain consistency in the method of determining the minimum living standard. What we are discussing here is the index that should be considered when determining the minimum living standard, rather than trying to determine a poverty line. The main purpose of studying the reference index system when formulating the minimum living standard is to prevent arbitrariness in the process of determining the standard, and at the same time, it is convenient for the minimum living standard management department to guide and supervise the work in various places.
Referring to the basic principles of establishing the minimum living standard, we believe that a reference index system of the minimum living standard for urban residents can be established, including four secondary indicators and 16 tertiary indicators. Among them, the four secondary indicators are: residents' minimum living needs, economic development, family status and reference factors.