Study On Living Conditions And Social Aid In Urban Sandwich Layer And Its Countermeasures

The subsistence allowances for the urban poor in China is a typically Chinese social aid system, which is the product of social development and progress, as well as an important symbol of modern civilization. What is more, hailed as "the last firenet" in the society, it guarantees the basic life of impoverished residents and has made great contribution to the social stability and economic development. However, the subsistence allowances for the urban poor are sustained with finances; because of its limitation, the "urban sandwich layer" has finally been generated. The "urban sandwich layer" refers to those whose standard of living is above the basic cost of living allowances while under the level of impoverishment. These people often have stable income, and besides, their income is, in most cases, above the basic cost of living allowances. With the increasing development of the society and continuous perfection of the social aid system which is mainly targeted at people entitled to basic living allowances, the phenomena of brittle economic and mental holding capacity of these people has gradually come into existence, and have become one of the potential factors of the social disharmony and restlessness. The thesis takes Shinan District of Qingdao for example. Through the analysis of the institutionalization in generating of the "urban sandwich layer", the current situation of those people and the deficiency in helping them, this thesis puts forward rational proposals on reinforcing the potency dimension of aiding the "urban sandwich layer" and perfection of the social aid system.This thesis puts forward the idea of "identity feature" of the residents entitled to basic living allowances through the analysis of the "one-size-fits-all" approach of the subsistence allowances for the urban poor. This "identity feature" guarantees that people entitled to basic living allowances enjoy the priority in such aspects as medical treatment, education, employment, aid of social charity organization. The idea of aiding those who should be entitled to basic living allowances having been fulfilled, their standard of living having been improved largely, however, there are still many people with low income which is above the basic cost of living allowances, who are not entitled to the basic living allowances. The social aid policy in such aspects as medical treatment, education and employment can hardly take these people into account. As a consequence, their standard of living is even worse than those who have been entitled to basic living allowances. This group is called "urban sandwich layer". With the help of the survey of low-income groups in Shinan District, the analysis of relative data, and combined with interviews of individuals in typical "urban sandwich layer" families, the government officials have gradually learned more about the residents'current living conditions and their demands in payment, education, medical treatment, housing, marital relation and social communication. Meanwhile, the thesis has also analyzed the current social aid policy and its implementation of it in Shinan District. The result of the analysis shows that there is still no adequate and perfect policy in accordance with the demands of "urban sandwich layer" families. Detailed operation programs go with many problems as well. As a consequence of it, the thesis aims at putting forward some countermeasures and proposals to the above problems. Firstly, social aid should follow the principles of openness, especially to those "urban sandwich layer" families. Residence restriction should be gradually abolished because of its limitations. Farmers with low standard of living in urban areas should be aided; the basis of implementing aid policy should be turned from checking and ratifying the income into overall evaluation of those who should be aided. On the second place, proposals on optimizing the aid system, perfecting operating mechanism, establishing supervising and managing system, assisting employment, charity, and mental aid have been put forward. Finally, a more complete and comprehensive "urban sandwich layer" system has come into existence, which provides reference for the perfection and fulfillment of the overall social aid system.