The "Guiding Opinions on Further Improving and Implementing Active Reproductive Support Measures" (hereinafter referred to as the "Guiding Opinions") issued by 17 departments including the National Health Commission was released on the 16th.
The "Guiding Opinions" proposes to thoroughly implement the policy and supporting measures that a couple can have three children, take marriage, childbirth, parenting and education into consideration, and improve and implement active childbearing in finance, taxation, insurance, education, housing, employment, etc. support measures.
"It is the first time that so many ministries and commissions have jointly issued a document on the issue of fertility support." Song Jian, deputy director and professor of the Population and Development Research Center of Renmin University of China, said in an interview with the "Strong Observation" column of People's Daily Online. Comprehensively implement economic and service policies, make precise efforts, and establish an active birth support policy system.
"Will having more children aggravate female employment discrimination?"
"With more children, there will be more maternity leave. Will it affect income? Will it affect work? Will it aggravate female employment discrimination?" This is a question raised by many netizens.
The "Guiding Opinions" further improves the maternity leave and benefits guarantee mechanism from two aspects: optimizing the maternity leave system and improving maternity insurance and other related social insurance systems.
It is proposed that localities should improve maternity leave policies, help employees balance work and family relationships, and promote fair employment and career development.
In fact, in the past year, the system of maternity leave has been basically covered and improved.
After sorting out, it is found that the population and family planning regulations issued by many provinces, including paid maternity leave, husband paternity leave, and parental parental leave as the main content of time support measures are reflected.
"Improving maternity leave is a support measure for maternity time that my country has implemented in the process of easing the maternity policy." Song Jian believes that the "Guiding Opinions" has improved and summarized the previous effective local measures, compared with the previous ones. The principled maternity policy is more specific.
At the same time, it emphasized that the state unified and standardized and formulated and improved maternity insurance and maternity allowance payment policies, strengthened maternity insurance's role in guaranteeing maternity medical expenses and maternity allowances for insured female employees, and ensured the safety of maternity insurance funds.
"The child-rearing sharing mechanism must be clarified. How to establish a reasonable and sustainable child-bearing cost sharing mechanism to protect women's rights and interests needs to be continuously explored." Song Jian said.
"What if I can afford it, but can't afford it?"
"Since the release of the third child has been put on the agenda, it is necessary not only to make it affordable for people to bear, but also to support it." Song Jian said that at present, the cost of childbirth is not bad, but the cost of parenting and education varies from family to individual. However, how to reduce these two costs requires the support of national system policies.
"If a family with two children can still make do with a two-bedroom, then a family with three children will definitely increase the overall requirements for the number of rooms and area of housing." Song Jian said that the current housing prices in many big cities are relatively high. Unable to buy a house has basically become a common problem for young people.
Therefore, housing policies should be appropriately tilted towards families with many children.
The "Guiding Opinions" proposes to speed up the improvement of the housing security system, accurately implement the preferential policies for buying and renting houses, and give full play to the supporting roles of taxation and finance.
In fact, pilots have been carried out in many places long before the "Guiding Opinions" were issued.
For example, Wuxi issued the "Notice on Actively Promoting the Improvement of Living Conditions for Families with Two or More Children" to relax the purchase restrictions for families with two or more children.
Since then, cities such as Hangzhou have also clearly increased the loan limit of provident fund for three-child families.
"The active housing market for three-child families in the future is an important content that deserves attention." Song Jian said that the "Guiding Opinions" not only absorbed some local innovative practices, but also provided policy guidance for the next step in the active practice of local governments.
In addition, in order to solve the problem of "affordability", the "Guiding Opinions" proposes that infant care expenses under the age of 3 can also enjoy a special additional deduction policy for individual income tax.
It is reported that starting from this year, taxpayers' expenses related to caring for infants and children under the age of 3 will be deducted at a fixed rate of 1,000 yuan per month for each infant and child.
Parents can choose to deduct 100% of the deduction standard by one of them, or they can choose to deduct 50% of the deduction standard by both parties, but the specific deduction method cannot be changed within a tax year.
"How to solve the problem of unattended infants and young children?"
Fertility is the foundation, nurture and education are more important.
Experts believe that the "Guiding Opinions" focus on five key words, namely "basic, inclusive, investment, charging, and burden reduction", including strengthening basic public services, focusing on increasing inclusive services, increasing investment support, There are five aspects to standardize various service charges and reduce the operating burden of institutions.
On August 17, Hao Fuqing, deputy director and first-level inspector of the Social Development Department of the National Development and Reform Commission, introduced when answering a reporter’s question: Domestic surveys show that unattended infants and young children are the primary factor hindering childbirth, and more than 1/3 of the urban 3 of the families have childcare needs, but the supply is obviously insufficient, especially the supply of inclusive services is in short supply.
The "Strong Observation" column combed and found that all localities are gradually advancing the work of improving the nursery system.
For example, Guangzhou encourages qualified employers to provide welfare childcare services for employees, and supports social forces to set up infant care institutions.
"For many dual-earner families, the problem of childcare is the primary problem facing childbirth. The "Guiding Opinions" proposes to develop an inclusive childcare service system, and it is clear that the supply of inclusive childcare services should be increased. Song Jian said that childcare services The gap is large, but there are also great differences in different regions. Each region needs to adapt to local conditions and solve it in a targeted manner.
"It is worth mentioning that the document also mentioned 'one old and one small'. The population problem is a comprehensive problem. The continued low fertility rate will bring about an aging population, and the elderly are also a group that needs attention." Song Jian said , The "Guiding Opinions" especially highlight the concept of full life cycle service and coverage of the whole population, and focus on solving the primary factors hindering fertility, while allowing the elderly to depend on them and reducing the burden of supporting the elderly.
(Tang Jia)