What are the main forms of social assistance?

The main forms of social assistance are social assistance, material assistance or spiritual assistance and public assistance. Social assistance means that the state and society provide economic assistance and life assistance to citizens who are trapped in the predicament of human survival for various reasons.

Several ways of social assistance:

1, social relief

The term social assistance, some of which are also called social assistance. Generally speaking, relief is a passive poverty alleviation measure. Based on sympathy and charity, charity for the poor is mostly a temporary relief measure. However, aid reflects a positive poverty alleviation measure and is a long-term aid as a government responsibility. Therefore, the government's long-term assistance responsibility refers to a social security system in which the state provides special assistance to citizens who have lost their ability to work due to disasters and low-income citizens to maintain their minimum living standards. Social assistance is mainly to provide minimum living security for members of society, with the goal of helping the poor and vulnerable groups, and the target is the low-income groups in society. Social assistance embodies a strong humanitarian thought and is the last protection and safety net of social security.

2. Material assistance or spiritual assistance

Social assistance refers to all kinds of measures taken by the state and other social subjects to help citizens who suffer from natural disasters and lose their ability to work or other low-income citizens in order to maintain their basic living needs and ensure their minimum living standard. Social assistance is the oldest and most basic way of social security, which plays an important and irreplaceable role in correcting "market failure", adjusting resource allocation, realizing social equity, maintaining social stability and building a harmonious socialist society. To build a well-off society in an all-round way under the guidance of Scientific Outlook on Development, we must build a social assistance system with China characteristics to effectively protect the basic rights (right to life) of vulnerable groups. This is the primary task faced by the current academic and practical departments. The key to the establishment of social assistance system lies in the construction of legal system, that is, the establishment of a complete legal system of social assistance in China. Social assistance law belongs to the third jurisdiction which is relatively independent of public law and private law.

3. Official assistance

In practice, the usual practice is to set up a minimum living guarantee line according to the standard of maintaining the minimum living needs. Every citizen has the right to receive cash and in-kind assistance provided by the state and society in accordance with the statutory procedures and standards published in clear text when his income level is lower than the minimum living security line and his life is difficult. Social assistance can be divided from different angles according to different starting points, different bases and different standards. According to the actual content of assistance, it can be divided into life assistance, housing assistance, medical assistance, education aid and legal assistance. According to the means of assistance, it can be divided into financial assistance, physical assistance and service assistance. According to the change of poverty duration, poverty can be divided into long-term poverty, temporary poverty and cyclical poverty, so social assistance can be divided into regular assistance for long-term poverty (such as orphans and the sick and disabled) and temporary assistance for temporary poverty (such as unemployment assistance in most cases and natural disaster assistance). ) and poverty alleviation for cyclical poverty (such as helping poor households).

legal ground

Temporary measures of social assistance

Article 9 The state shall provide minimum living guarantee to families whose per capita income of family members living together is lower than the local minimum living guarantee standard and meet the requirements of the local minimum living guarantee family property status.

Article 20 The state establishes and improves the system of natural disaster relief, and provides life relief to those whose basic lives are seriously affected by natural disasters. Natural disaster relief implements territorial management and is responsible at different levels.

Article 27 The state establishes and improves the medical assistance system to ensure that medical assistance recipients can obtain basic medical and health services.

Article 33 The State shall provide educational subsidies for the minimum living security to family members and destitute dependents who receive compulsory education.

For family members with minimum living guarantee, destitute dependents attending senior high school education (including secondary vocational education) and ordinary higher education, and disabled children unable to attend compulsory education, appropriate education aid shall be given according to the actual situation.