Our reporter Wu Chuqi
Statistics released by the Ministry of Civil Affairs show that as of the first half of this year, there were 39.354 million urban and rural subsistence allowance recipients and 4.937 million extremely poor people across the country; 12.027 million people enjoyed living allowances for people with disabilities in difficulties, and 16.871 million people enjoyed nursing subsidies for severely disabled people.
During the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, the country's cumulative expenditure on basic living assistance exceeded 1.38 trillion yuan, and the average urban and rural subsistence allowances increased by 22.8% and 25% respectively.
Behind the data, there are specific people and real families being supported by an increasingly complete social assistance system. Starting from July 1 this year, the "Social Assistance Law of the People's Republic of China" will officially come into effect. Difficulties are discovered in a timely manner, needs are accurately responded to, and basic lives are guaranteed. Policies introduced one after another are closer to the people's actual lives. my country's basic people's livelihood security network is becoming more and more dense.
Actively develop service-type social assistance
More powerful protection
Zhang Shanying (pseudonym) lives in a nursing home in Changle Town, Hepu County, Beihai City, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. She is cared for every day, and meals are delivered to her every day. Even if she feels unwell, she can receive timely care.
Not long ago, Zhang Shanying's husband passed away suddenly, and she was unable to take care of herself and lost her support. Due to the loss of relevant documents, even applying for assistance has become a problem. After learning the news, staff from the Changle Town Civil Affairs Office actively intervened, contacting the public security department to reissue the household registration book and ID card, coordinating with relevant departments to reissue the disability certificate and social security card, and then helping to verify the family situation and apply for assistance. After review, Zhang Shanying was identified as a particularly poor person. Considering that she was unable to take care of herself and had no one to take care of her, the local government coordinated and sent her to a nursing home for intensive care.
The difficulties faced by the masses are the major issues of social assistance work. For people with special needs such as those who are disabled, disabled, and have no one to take care of them, the difficulties are often not just lack of money. Who will cook, who will take care of them, and what to do if they can't take care of themselves, etc. are all problems before them.
Recently, the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the Ministry of Finance issued the "Guiding Opinions on Actively Developing Service-type Social Assistance" to promote the transformation of social assistance from a single material assistance method to a "material + service" comprehensive assistance model, and provide care, life, care and other services based on the actual needs of assistance recipients.
"The problems faced by people in need are very specific. Sometimes they lack living expenses, and sometimes they lack someone who can take care of and accompany them." Zhu Jianhua, a professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, said that actively developing service-type social assistance not only ensures the basic life of people in need, but also gives them spiritual support and survival. There is hope for life, "from ensuring basic food and clothing to further responding to practical needs such as daily care, life services, psychological comfort, companionship and social integration, it reflects that my country's social assistance pays more attention to the specific situation of people in need, and provides more multi-dimensional comprehensive assistance by linking resources and integrating forces."
“Big data + ‘iron foot plate’” timely intervention
Rescue identification is more proactive
Dong Xinghua, civil affairs assistant of Yuanhe Street, Yunhe County, Lishui City, Zhejiang Province, opened the Zhejiang Provincial Mass Relief Information System, and an early warning for large medical expenses popped up.
It turned out that 67-year-old Uncle Que had applied for assistance before, but due to his weak ability to resist risks, he was included in the dynamic monitoring of the large-scale rescue information system. In March of this year, Uncle Que suffered a cerebral infarction and was paralyzed. The initial medical expenses almost depleted his savings, and the subsequent monthly rehabilitation and nursing expenses were beyond his means.
After seeing the early warning, Dong Xinghua immediately called to verify. After asking the hospital and Uncle Que's son about the situation, she helped Uncle Que's family apply for the "One Thing" joint assistance through the system's "handheld agency" function. "You can take care of your father with peace of mind, and we will take care of the rest." Dong Xinghua said to Uncle Que's son. In the afternoon of the same day, the application for minimum living allowance was submitted through the system. Fifteen days later, Uncle Que's family was approved for subsistence allowance treatment, and could receive a monthly subsistence allowance of 1,210 yuan. Subsequent medical expenses were also guaranteed according to local policies.
Since the beginning of this year, Yunhe County has proactively discovered and included 135 similar families through system early warnings.
A family falls into difficulty, sometimes after a serious illness or an accident. In the past, some people did not understand the policy, did not know who to contact, or were in urgent need and had no time to apply, so it may be difficult for them to enter the rescue field for a while. Nowadays, with the closer connection between departmental information sharing and grassroots visits and investigations, the role of dynamic monitoring of low-income populations has further emerged. The Social Assistance Law includes families on the margins of minimum living security and families with rigid expenditure difficulties into the scope of social assistance objects, and makes institutional arrangements for strengthening the dynamic monitoring of low-income populations and proactively identifying people in need.
"The value of 'policy finding people' is to move the detection and rescue frontier forward." Zhu Jianhua said that data can help discover possible risks in a family, but to truly know what the family lacks and where the difficulties lie, grassroots workers need to go into the home. "Big data can discover clues and the 'iron foot plate' can verify the situation. Only by combining the two can proactive prevention and early intervention be achieved, so that rescue is both fast and accurate. This is also a concrete manifestation of the risk prevention function of social assistance."
Relevant comrades in charge of the Social Assistance Department of the Ministry of Civil Affairs said that the hierarchical and classified social assistance system is currently being further improved. Through the combination of departmental data sharing and household visits, monitoring and early warning can be achieved, and families in difficulties due to large medical expenses, sudden decreases in income, etc. can be promptly identified, and corresponding assistance policies can be matched according to the degree and type of difficulty. It not only allows qualified people in need to "have all the protection they need", but also strives to achieve early detection of difficulties and early intervention of rescue.
The subsidy system continues to improve
Protection for people with disabilities is more heart-warming
In Lijiatanghou Village, Longshan Street, Wendeng District, Weihai City, Shandong Province, for Wang Ankang (pseudonym), who was paralyzed and bedridden due to a car accident for more than 20 years, nursing pads, medicines and nutritional supplements are fixed monthly expenses. In 2016, Wang Ankang began to enjoy the living subsidy for the disabled and the nursing subsidy for the severely disabled. At that time, both subsidies were 80 yuan per month. Now, according to local standards, the two subsidies have been increased to 213 yuan and 192 yuan per month respectively.
"The subsidy arrives on time every month, which makes me feel at ease." Wang Ankang said that these two sums of money can basically cover the cost of nursing supplies and commonly used medicines, which is very important to his family.
During the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, the two subsidy standards for disabled people increased by 34.58% and 25.09% respectively. In recent years, the two subsidy systems for persons with disabilities have been continuously improved. Applications for qualification accreditation have been "transformed across provinces" and "completely processed online". Relevant departments have continued to strengthen data sharing and proactive services to make it more convenient for eligible persons with disabilities to enjoy the policy.
"With the continuous improvement of the two subsidies for disabled people and the level of social assistance, the basic life of disabled people has been effectively guaranteed. At the same time, long-term care is becoming a real problem faced by many disabled families, especially for families with severe disabilities." Yang Lixiong, a professor at Renmin University of China, believes that it is necessary to continue to improve the care service system for severely disabled people, and in the process of carrying out service-type social assistance, severely disabled people with difficulties should be listed as key service targets, and precise policies should be implemented to reduce the care burden of disabled families.
The relevant responsible comrades of the Social Affairs Department of the Ministry of Civil Affairs stated that the living allowance for the disabled is mainly used to subsidize the additional living expenses of the disabled due to disability, and the nursing subsidy for the severely disabled is mainly used to subsidize the additional long-term care expenses of the disabled due to the disability. In the next step, we will continue to improve the dynamic adjustment mechanism of subsidy standards, strengthen data sharing and comparison and proactive services, so that qualified disabled people can enjoy the policy in a more timely and convenient manner.
