Study On The Convergence Of Urban And Rural Pension Insurance System

As a country with large population, aging of the society could leads to various social problems in China. Therefore, government officials and scholars have paid high attention on planning pension scheme for elderly people. Urbanization and industrialization make it normal for population migrating between rural and urban areas. Worker from rural area has contributed themselves to the cities development. However, when it comes to pension schemes, they are more likely to be treated unfairly. The transfer and connection of pension schemes is one of the essential elements on which a harmonious society is based. Therefore, promoting pension scheme reform has been recognized in government work report of 2015.After 18th CPC National Congress, in order to build a comprehensive system of pension scheme, Chinese government has developed urban and rural pension insurance, which combined pension insurance system for urban workers and new rural social pension scheme. Also, national government has authorized’Interim Regulations on joining rural and urban pension insurance’, aiming to solve the problems during transition period. This regulation has illustrated personal account transit, working time coverage, pension allocation. However, when it comes to practical implementation, problems emerge on the linkage between urban and rural pension insurance systems. Based on theories on pension scheme of both domestic and foreign studies, this thesis will analyze the pension insurance system of our country, the interim measures for the system connection, and implementation of the regulation. It will point out the problems facing the convergence of the two systems, like immature regulations, limited coverage, large payment gap, management problems, and migrant worker’s insurance. This thesis will analyze the causes of these problems from three aspects. To be more specific, it can be attributed to both the dual structures of economy and society of China, and also the imperfection of the social security system itself. In view of successful experience drawn from both foreign and domestic countries, especially these from Wuxi, Jiaxing, Suzhou, Beijing, Chengdu, and Guangdong of China, the paper will provide constructive suggestions on improving the balanced development of rural and urban pension insurance systems. Suggestions include emphasizing government’s role, increasing insurance rate among rural citizen, developing multi-dimensional pension system, and enhancing advertisement on pension schemes to the society.