Problems and Countermeasures of Rural Endowment Insurance System

Rural social security is an important part of China's social security system, which is related to the current or future quality of life of the population accounting for about 70% of the total population, and rural social endowment insurance is one of the key contents. With the surging tide of aging, the problem of rural old-age care has become increasingly prominent and urgent.

In order to find a suitable solution, our government has tried to establish a rural social endowment insurance system since the mid-1980s. So far, rural social endowment insurance has a history of 10 years. This history can be roughly divided into three stages:

The first stage:

1986- 1992 is the pilot stage. From 65438 to 0986, the Ministry of Civil Affairs and relevant ministries and commissions of the State Council held the "National Symposium on Rural Grassroots Social Security Work" in Shazhou County, Jiangsu Province. According to the actual situation of rural areas in China, the meeting decided to develop rural social security work according to local conditions. Some economically developed areas became the first batch of pilot areas.

The second stage:

1992 ——1998 is the promotion stage. 199 1 In June, the former Rural Pension Office of the Ministry of Civil Affairs formulated the Basic Plan for Rural Social Endowment Insurance at County Level (hereinafter referred to as the Basic Plan), which determined the principle of developing rural social endowment insurance by county, and decided to promulgate and implement it nationwide from June to June. Since then, rural social endowment insurance has been popularized everywhere, and the number of participants has been rising. By the end of 1997, 82 million farmers had been insured.

The third stage:

After 1998, it entered the recession stage. 1998 government institutional reform, rural social endowment insurance was transferred from the civil affairs department to the Ministry of Labor and Social Security. At present, due to the influence of many factors, rural social endowment insurance in most parts of the country has encountered difficulties such as the decline in the number of participants and the difficulty in fund operation, and some rural social endowment insurance in some areas has even come to a standstill. The official attitude towards this work has also wavered.

1in July, 1999, the State Council pointed out that at present, China's rural areas do not have the conditions for universal implementation of social endowment insurance, and decided to clean up and rectify the existing business, stop accepting new business, and gradually transition to commercial insurance in areas where conditions permit.

In view of the development of rural old-age security, this paper puts forward some countermeasures and suggestions, mainly focusing on the following aspects:

1. Increase support for rural social endowment insurance. Many researchers have noticed that the lack of government support is the root cause of farmers' lack of enthusiasm for insurance. Therefore, in view of the fact that the proportion of collective subsidies is too small and the state support is minimal, they all propose to appropriately increase the proportion of collective subsidies and strengthen government support. Only in this way can rural social endowment insurance truly have the "sociality" and "welfare" that social security should have, and can arouse farmers' enthusiasm for participating in insurance.

2. We should establish the legal status of rural social endowment insurance and make it have institutional stability. The country's policy on rural endowment insurance is changeable, which is not conducive to the development of this work. There are no standardized and unified rules and regulations on business, finance and file management in all parts of the country, which leads to the instability of rural social endowment insurance system. Legislation is the best way to realize the stability policy.

3. Improve the ability of maintaining and increasing the value of the fund and solve the payment problem of rural social endowment insurance. This is a very difficult problem, because investment itself is a very complicated science, and talents in this field are very scarce in China; Moreover, at present, there are few investment channels with smaller risks and higher returns in China, but many documents still provide some useful ideas and reform directions.

On the premise of ensuring the safety of funds, the investment agency system can be implemented through legal procedures, and some pension insurance funds can be entrusted to professional investment companies for investment, so as to improve the value-added rate of accumulated funds.

(2) Because the rural endowment insurance covers the county, most of the funds are concentrated in the county-level security departments, and its preservation and appreciation are limited by talents, information and investment ability. Therefore, it can be stipulated that investors who cannot guarantee an appropriate rate of appreciation will give up their investment rights within a certain period of time and turn over all or part of the endowment insurance fund, and the provincial departments will be responsible for maintaining and increasing the value and bear the responsibility. If the provincial department cannot maintain and increase the value, it may entrust the fund to the relevant state institutions for management. This method is adopted in Fujian province, and the effect is good.

So far, there are still many problems in rural social endowment insurance that need further study, among which the most critical ones are:

1, rural social endowment insurance financing model

Many researchers suggest that government support should be strengthened when raising rural pension funds. But how appropriate should this "strength" be, that is, it can fully mobilize the enthusiasm of farmers for insurance, and the government can afford it? What is the substitution relationship between social equity and economic efficiency on this issue? For these problems, there is no clear quantitative analysis, or even a framework for quantitative analysis, so "increasing government support" lacks scientific guidance and is difficult to implement.

2, rural social endowment insurance management institutions.

According to international practice, the collection, management and distribution of social security funds should follow the principle of decentralization. However, China's rural social endowment insurance was basically managed independently by the civil affairs department before 1998, and it was managed by the labor and social security department after 1998, and it was also a family decision. The lack of right supervision is the key to fund security, so the system setting of rural social endowment insurance needs reform. However, how to change and reflect the supervision and checks and balances of rights is a problem that is less studied in the existing literature.

3. The convergence of urban and rural endowment insurance.

China's existing rural social endowment insurance system and urban workers' endowment insurance system are two completely different systems, and they have no convertible basis and cannot be connected at all. However, with the deepening of China's economic reform, the pace of urbanization will be accelerated, and a large number of rural laborers will flow to cities. The two disjointed pension insurance systems will become obstacles to the free flow of labor.

Further reading: How to buy insurance, which is good, and teach you how to avoid these "pits" of insurance.