The Chinese Premier announced on 1 June 2011 a new pilot on urban resident social pension insurance programme to be implemented as of 1 July 2011, which is expected to cover 60 per cent of China and basically benefit all uninsured urban residents by the end of 2012.

All urban residents aged 16 and above (excluding school students) who are not engaged in employment and hence do not qualify for enrolment under the basic pension insurance scheme for urban employees can join the urban resident pension insurance programme on a voluntary basis at the place where their households have been registered.

Enrolled residents are obliged to contribute to their individual accounts, for which the government will provide a subsidy of no less than CNY30 to each person every year.

Upon reaching the age of 60, an insured person will receive not only a pension benefit based on his or her individual account accumulation, but also a monthly social pension of no less than CNY55 which is fully financed by the government budget and adjusted according to the economic development and price changes.

Those aged 60 and above and meet the prescribed conditions, however, are not required to pay any contribution and can claim the basic social pension each month.

According to the 2010 China Census, a total of 140 million Chinese nationals aged 60 and above, including about 120 million in rural areas and 20 million in urban areas, do not have access to the basic urban pension insurance scheme. In 2010, mainland China has a total of 174 million nationals aged 60 and above, accounting for 12.8 per cent of the population. This figure is projected to rise to about 15 per cent by 2015 and enter a peak period in about a dozen years.

Source:  

http://www.gov.cn/english/2011-06/01/content_1875137.htm

http://www.cnss.cn/new/ttxw/201106/t20110602_251257.htm (in Chinese only)

Implementation date: 07.2011