Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, July 27 - Title: Under the influence of the epidemic, how to adjust the pension? How to ensure timely and full payment?

  Xinhua News Agency "Xinhua Viewpoint" reporter

  Recently, nearly 30 provinces across the country have issued pension adjustment plans. It is reported that due to the impact of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, pension insurance fund income has declined. Under this circumstance, how can all localities ensure the smooth adjustment of pensions and payment in full and on time?

Pensions continue to adjust this year, with an overall increase of 5%

  In April this year, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and the Ministry of Finance jointly issued the "Notice on Adjusting the Basic Pension for Retired Persons in 2020". Starting from January 1, 2020, it will be processed as required by December 31, 2019. Retirees from enterprises, government agencies and institutions that retire through retirement procedures and receive basic pensions on a monthly basis adjust their basic pension levels. The national overall adjustment ratio is determined by 5% of the monthly basic pension per capita for retirees in 2019. Each province uses the national overall adjustment ratio as the upper limit to determine its own adjustment ratio and level.

  The reporter of "Xinhua Viewpoint" found that as of now, nearly 30 provinces across the country, including Shanghai, Tianjin, Guangdong, and Anhui, have released specific adjustment plans on their official websites. Liaoning, Hebei, Jiangsu, Anhui, Guangdong and other places stipulate that the payment will be implemented before the end of July, and Ningxia requires that the increased pension be paid to retired personnel in full by the end of August at the latest.

  According to Chu Fulin, director of the China Social Security Research Center of the Central University of Finance and Economics, pension adjustment is a legal adjustment based on multiple factors such as economic growth, rising prices, and wage income growth.

  The reporter learned that the provinces that have issued plans still adopted a combination of quota adjustment, linkage adjustment and appropriate tilt.

  In terms of quota adjustment, the amount of adjustment in different provinces ranges from 25 yuan to 80 yuan. Among them, Tibet and Shanghai have higher adjustment amounts, which are respectively an increase of 80 yuan and 75 yuan per person per month. The link adjustment is mainly linked to factors such as the payment period or working period of the retirees and the basic pension level. Shanghai, Anhui, Inner Mongolia and other places stipulate that for every one year of payment, the basic pension increase per person per month ranges from a few yuan to tens of yuan. In Tianjin, Guangdong, Liaoning and other places, the payment limit is 15 years, and the amount is increased again for the part that exceeds the 15-year payment period.

  This pension adjustment also continues the past tradition of preferring senior citizens, corporate retired military cadres and retirees in difficult and remote areas. Hebei has increased its preference for retirees stationed in difficult and remote areas outside the province. The level of hardship exceeds that of Hebei, an increase of 35 yuan per month.

  "The adjustment of the basic pension for retirees will help increase the family income of retirees, and it will also help stimulate consumption and stimulate domestic demand." said Xiang Yunhua, a professor at the Social Security Research Center of Wuhan University.

Will the reduction of pension insurance premiums affect pension payment?

  The pension funds for enterprise retirees are allocated from the pension insurance fund of the social security "five social insurance and one housing fund". Under the influence of the epidemic, the state has introduced policies such as exemption, reduction, and mitigation of corporate pension insurance premiums, and the income of pension insurance funds has declined. At the same time, as local fiscal revenues have declined to varying degrees, the difficulty of subsidizing pension insurance funds has also increased.

  “This year’s reduction and exemption of social insurance premiums is unprecedented in intensity and scale. The three social insurances for corporate endowment, unemployment and work-related injuries are expected to be reduced by 1.6 trillion yuan throughout the year, of which corporate pension insurance premiums account for 1.5 trillion yuan.” Nie Mingjun, director of the Pension Insurance Department of the Ministry of Security said.

  Therefore, raising the basic pension for retirees will undoubtedly further increase the pressure-bearing capacity of the pension insurance fund. Whether pensions can be raised and paid on time has become the focus of social attention.

  Nie Mingjun said that there is no problem with guaranteeing the distribution as a whole. Benefiting from the rapid economic development over the years, my country's corporate pension insurance funds have accumulated a considerable "family property." As of the end of June, the cumulative balance of the national corporate pension insurance fund reached 4.77 trillion yuan. It is expected that it will maintain a balance of more than 3.8 trillion yuan by the end of the year. In addition, there is a national social security strategic reserve fund of more than 2 trillion yuan. Still relatively strong.

  In response to the “revenues that may not cover the expenditures” of the current fund in some provinces, industry insiders said that the central adjustment system of the basic enterprise pension insurance fund will play an important role.

  "We have also fully prejudged the degree of difficulty in ensuring distribution by provinces, and will increase funding and support for difficult provinces." Nie Mingjun said.

  Hubei and other provinces have been relatively severely affected by the epidemic, and the central adjustment fund expenditure has also been tilted accordingly. For example, Hubei's benefit from the difference between the amount allocated by the Central Adjustment Fund and the amount turned in increased by 55.4% compared with last year.

How to further ensure the safety of pensions?

  "In terms of system construction, there is a fundamental system arrangement for long-term guarantee distribution." Nie Mingjun said.

  It is understood that in order to ensure the pension payment, relevant departments have taken a series of measures.

  According to the "Table of Expenditures of the Central Adjustment Fund in 2020" recently announced by the Ministry of Finance, the total scale of the Central Adjustment Fund this year will reach 739.972 billion yuan, an increase of 17.4% over last year. The proportion of fund adjustments increased from 3.5% last year to 4%.

  Promote national overall planning on the basis of unified revenue and expenditure at the provincial level. Up to now, 26 provinces across the country have implemented standardized provincial-level overall planning. By the end of the year, all provinces will realize the unified income and expenditure of funds at the provincial level, which will not only further enhance the ability of the province's unified deployment and use of funds, but also lay a good foundation for the realization of national pension insurance.

  Establish a social security strategic reserve fund. The current fund size has reached more than 2 trillion yuan. In order to further enhance the sustainability of the social security fund, the transfer of part of the state-owned capital has been fully implemented to enrich the social security fund. As of the end of 2019, the central government has completed the transfer of state-owned capital of 1.3 trillion yuan.

  Maintain and increase the value of existing funds. At present, 22 provinces have signed entrusted investment contracts for basic pension insurance funds, with a total of 948.2 billion yuan in funds received.

  In response to previous cases of false payment, fraudulent collection of pension funds and other cases in individual areas, Han Keqing, a professor at the School of Labor and Human Resources of Renmin University of China, suggested that financial account management and audit supervision should be further strengthened, and system standardization and legalization should be strengthened to eliminate loopholes And the appearance of gaps. (Reporters Zhai Yongguan, Song Jia, Wang Youling, Li Jinfeng, Wang Hui)