China News Service, January 25th. Zhang Zaigang, deputy director of the Department of Social Assistance of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, said on the 25th that the Ministry of Civil Affairs, in conjunction with relevant departments, has taken a series of measures to properly arrange the basic lives of the people in difficulty during the holiday season.

　　On the morning of the 25th, the Ministry of Civil Affairs held a press conference.

At the meeting, a reporter asked: Now that the Spring Festival is less than a month away, under the current epidemic prevention and control situation, what measures has the Ministry of Civil Affairs taken to ensure the basic lives of the people in difficulties during the festival?

　　Zhang Zaigang responded that the Party Central Committee and the State Council attach great importance to the work of ensuring the lives of people in difficulties during the "Two Festivals".

The Ministry of Civil Affairs conscientiously implements the decisions and arrangements of the Party Central Committee and the State Council, and takes a series of measures in conjunction with relevant departments to properly arrange the basic lives of the people in difficulty during the holiday season.

　　The first is to strengthen the monitoring and investigation of the people who have escaped from poverty and the marginalized population, proactively discover and accurately identify the needy people, and promptly include those who meet the requirements into the scope of assistance such as subsistence allowances and special poverty support.

A total of 44.2 million needy people across the country are included in the scope of the minimum living standard.

The average national urban minimum living standard is 665 yuan per person per month, and the average rural minimum living standard is 5842 yuan per person per year, an increase of 7.7% and 11.3% respectively.

　　The second is that the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Civil Affairs allocated 104.162 billion yuan in advance of the central government’s financial assistance subsidies for the needy people in 2021 to ensure the basic living assistance funds for the needy people.

　　The third is to urge the local government to provide timely and full subsidies such as subsistence allowances and special hardship support.

Encourage local governments to provide holiday subsidies or temporary living allowances to people in need based on actual conditions.

　　The fourth is to deploy local governments to activate the linkage mechanism between social assistance and security standards and price increases based on the fluctuations in food prices and other prices to ensure that the living standards of the people in need will not be reduced due to price increases.

　　Fifth, earnestly implement various policies and measures to protect the people in need during the epidemic prevention and control period, and strive to reduce the impact of the epidemic on the lives of people in need.

It is clarified that temporary assistance will be provided directly to people affected by the epidemic and caught in life difficulties; in areas severely affected by the epidemic, additional aid funds, temporary living allowances and living supplies, and withdrawal of subsistence allowances can be suspended to protect the basic life.

　　The sixth is to guide the northern regions to implement winter heating assistance to ensure that the people in difficulties in cold regions are not frozen in winter.

According to statistics, a total of over 1.8 billion yuan has been issued for heating subsidies in northern regions such as Heilongjiang and Liaoning.