China News Service, Guiyang, September 11 (Reporter Zhang Wei) reporter learned from a press conference held by the Guizhou Provincial Department of Civil Affairs on the 11th that in order to implement the "Social Assistance Law of the People's Republic of China" and the "Opinions on Further Improving and Improving the Temporary Assistance System" of the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the Ministry of Finance of China, improve and improve specific measures to improve the hierarchical and classified social assistance system, and better protect the basic life of people in need, the Guizhou Provincial Department of Civil Affairs and the Guizhou Provincial Department of Finance recently jointly issued the "Notice on Strengthening and Improving Temporary Assistance Work" (hereinafter referred to as the "Notice").
The temporary assistance system is an important part of China's social assistance system. It assumes the key function of "covering the bottom line and then covering the bottom again" and is an important line of defense to protect the basic living rights of people in need. Since the "14th Five-Year Plan", Guizhou Province has provided temporary assistance to more than 1.25 million people, playing an important role in solving the sudden, urgent and temporary basic living difficulties of urban and rural people.
Officials stated that the "Notice" further strengthens the institutional function of "emergency rescue" and solves the problem of people in emergencies "cannot afford to wait" by establishing a standardized rapid rescue mechanism, truly realizing that "emergency rescue is possible and timely rescue"; it further improves the fairness and standardization of rescue, and reduces the discretionary space by establishing a graded and quantified rescue standard system. During the period, the temporary assistance standards are made more transparent and predictable, ensuring that people in need have equal access to assistance rights; the accuracy and effectiveness of assistance are further enhanced, the demand orientation is highlighted, focusing on key groups such as those caused by rigid expenditures, and the policy linkage mechanism is optimized so that assistance resources can truly be used for the people in need who need it most, and the bottom line of basic livelihood security can be guaranteed.
The full text of the "Notice" consists of four parts, which are to comprehensively carry out "small quick relief" for urgent and difficult matters, reasonably determine the standards for temporary relief, further strengthen policy coordination, and strengthen organizational leadership and element guarantees. The "Notice" embodies the four characteristics of "stronger timeliness", "clearer standards", "more accurate coverage" and "smoother connection".
Talking about the breakthroughs and highlights of the new regulations, Huang Meng, director of the Social Assistance Division of the Guizhou Provincial Department of Civil Affairs, said when asked by a reporter from China News Network that the breakthrough of the "Notice" is to transform the original principle of "first aid in emergencies" into an operable and standardized "small quick relief" system, that is, for those who encounter sudden, urgent, and catastrophic difficulties that cause temporary serious difficulties in basic life, "small quick relief" can be implemented in accordance with regulations at the place where the emergency occurs, and the situation will be supplemented afterwards.
Huang Meng said that the above-mentioned system effectively solved the pain point of "urgent but not quick", shortened the rescue time limit to less than 3 days, and greatly simplified the process. A graded and quantified rescue standard system has been established. The original standards were relatively principled, but now the quantitative standards have been clarified from "small quick rescue" to regular rescue to special cases, making it more fair and transparent. The demand orientation is highlighted, and families on the margins of subsistence allowances and families with rigid expenditure difficulties are specifically listed as key protection targets, and more precise protection is provided to groups affected by rigid expenditures. The mechanism for resolving special cases has been improved, with assistance of up to 50,000 yuan available, solving the problem of "insufficient assistance" for families with special and serious difficulties.
Liu Chang, director of the Guizhou Provincial Social Assistance Service Center, told reporters that the difficult situations in implementing "small quick relief" mainly include five types: "it is difficult for individuals or families to protect their basic livelihood due to sudden major diseases." "Small quick relief" is targeted at emergencies where people's life safety and basic livelihood "cannot afford to wait". The simplified process is to ensure timeliness, first provide emergency relief and then complete the formalities. The amount of "small amount quick rescue" is not high, and the maximum does not exceed the local one-month subsistence allowance standard. The amount itself is small, and relevant materials are required to prove the authenticity of the emergency situation. The information is retained for future reference. The monitoring platform will be supplemented afterwards, and the grassroots level will also strengthen subsequent verification. It is clearly stipulated that repeated applications for the same reason cannot be made within 6 months. Malicious deception will be included in the credit record, and responsibilities will be investigated in accordance with the law. The overall risk is controllable.
Temporary relief work is closely related to the welfare of people in need and the bottom line of social stability. The vitality of policy lies in its implementation. In the next step, Guizhou will focus on policy training, strengthening funding guarantees, increasing policy publicity, and strengthening guidance and supervision.
