1. At present, China's social security system faces three major challenges. In the long run, we should solve a series of social and economic problems brought about by the aging population; In the medium term, it is necessary to alleviate the huge social impact brought about by the transition from planned economy to socialist market economy; In the near future, we should consider how to adjust the income and expenditure level of related projects in a timely manner according to the fluctuation of macroeconomic situation to ensure stable economic growth.
2. The coverage is not complete. After the reform and opening up, China's social security system has changed, and social insurance funds have begun to transfer to the society as a whole. The system revolves around "one center, two guarantees and three guarantee lines", but the current three guarantee lines can not fully cover the urban poor. At present, the urban poor population in China exceeds 3 1 10,000, and the total number of people who enjoy social security in 1.999 is less than 3 million, which was less than 4 million in 2000. Outside the coverage of the minimum living security, the traditional civil relief object is the people who are "unable to work", which is a minority marginal group. In the system transition, people who are "able to work" but lose their job opportunities have also fallen into poverty, and their basic livelihood should also be guaranteed. In fact, the vast majority of these people can neither get the basic living expenses of laid-off workers nor enjoy the minimum living guarantee. They account for more than 70% of the total number of "laid-off", "unemployed" and "waiting for posts" in cities.
3. Rural social security needs to be developed urgently. It has been suggested that China's social security system also has duality in line with the dual economic structure: in cities, the social insurance system for enterprise employees has been established; In rural areas, family security is combined with collective assistance, while the former is the main security system. As the core content of modern social security system, social insurance has not been established in rural areas. It has been pointed out that there is a huge gap between the establishment of China's rural social security system and the relevant treaties of the International Labour Organization. It has been suggested that the fundamental reason for the lagging development of rural social security is the mistake of government financial expenditure. The social security expenditure of the central government accounts for 39% of the total expenditure of the central government, 37% of Japan and 35% of Australia. In China, it is only about 10%, and most of this 10% investment is also given to urban workers.
4. The social security level of laid-off workers is low. The coverage of urban unemployment insurance in China is extremely low, covering only formal employees, excluding rural employees and urban non-employees. At present, the proportion of national funds for unemployment insurance to GDP is still very low. The funds used by the state for unemployment insurance for laid-off workers include two parts: one is to pay the basic living expenses of laid-off workers, which is a temporary financial expenditure, including part of the expenses paid by enterprises; The second is the unemployment insurance fund expenditure. The total ratio of the two to GDP is 0. 16% in 1996 and 0.51%in 1999; It accounts for 65,438+0.265,438+0% of the total wages of employees in 1996, and 4.20% in 1999.
5. Legislation lags behind. In China, apart from the Labor Insurance Regulations promulgated by 1953, there is no second social security law, which can be regarded as social security legislation. Although rules and regulations have been formulated, they cannot replace the role of law. First of all, rules and regulations do not have the authority of law, and there is considerable room for manoeuvre in their implementation. Secondly, some rules or regulations were formulated earlier, which can no longer meet the needs of reform and opening up. Finally, some regulations and measures are obviously temporary, that is, expedient measures. These are not conducive to the establishment and healthy development of China's social security system.
Second, what kind of pension financing model should be established?
China's social endowment insurance system has been reformed for more than ten years. Although great changes have taken place in the scope of participation, financing channels and pension payment methods, the financing model has not changed. Although the current pension insurance system has personal accounts, it is essentially a pay-as-you-go type because it is empty. People have different views on this system.
The first view is to establish an endowment insurance system based on fund system and strengthen supplementary endowment insurance for enterprises. People who hold this view think that some people are worried that China's securities market is underdeveloped and the time for developing fund-based endowment insurance is not yet ripe, which is unnecessary. (1) The accumulation of pension funds has a process. First of all, the total amount of pension funds that can be invested in the securities market is limited, and the government still has enough time to improve the securities market. (2) According to the development of the securities market, the government can gradually relax the investment restrictions on pensions. (3) In the early stage of reform, foreign fund managers and experience can be introduced through joint ventures to improve the domestic fund management level. In order to establish a three-pillar old-age insurance system (the first pillar is the basic old-age insurance, the second pillar is the supplementary old-age insurance for enterprises, and the third pillar is the personal savings old-age insurance), we should reduce the excessive substitution rate of the basic old-age insurance, strengthen the supplementary insurance for enterprises through tax incentives and other measures, and implement compulsory payment for enterprises and individuals. The basic insurance personal account should be strictly separated from the social pooling account, and it should also be included in the scope of enterprise supplementary endowment insurance when conditions are ripe.
Some people think that if the pay-as-you-go system remains unchanged, with the expansion of the coverage of the system and the improvement of the payment level, the hidden debts of the pension system will continue to accumulate. In the past, the coverage of China's pension system was small, and the accumulated debt level was relatively low. However, if we continue to maintain the pay-as-you-go system in the future, we will face more serious financial problems when the population is aging rapidly in the future.