The delayed retirement has become a hot topic of public concern. As a matter of fact, the topic of delayed retirement has always been the center of social attention because it involves everyone's working life. It can be predicted that in the upcoming National People's Congress, the heat of this topic or will be further extended.
Why delayed retirement?
China's current legal retirement age is 60 years old for male workers, 55 years old for female cadres and 50 years old for female workers. Youjun, vice minister of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, said at a press conference at the State Council Information Office on the 26th that this provision was determined in the early days of the founding of New China on the basis of a number of factors such as life expectancy per capita at that time, labor conditions, employment practices, etc. However, after the reform and opening up of China's economy and society have undergone tremendous changes, the problem of the overall low age of retirement has become very prominent.
Data shows that as of the end of 2019, China's population aged 60 and above amounted to about 254 million, accounting for 18.1% of the total population, and it is expected that the elderly population will exceed 300 million during the Fourteenth Five-Year Plan period. China is facing a development trend from mild aging to moderate aging.
Mao Zongfu, a deputy to the National People's Congress (NPC) and director of Wuhan University's Global Health Research Center, said in an interview with China News Service that unlike developed countries that industrialize first and have some wealth accumulation before aging, China is aging while industrializing. "This stems from a variety of factors such as China's large population size and the increase in life expectancy."
Data show that China's per capita life expectancy has increased to 77.3 years by 2019, and the per capita life expectancy of urban residents has exceeded 80 years. So against the backdrop of longer per capita life expectancy and healthy life expectancy, delaying retirement is seen as an important move to crack labor supply shortages and tap human resources in an aging society.
Song Xiaowu, former chairman of the China Society for Economic System Reform, recently told the media publicly that compared with the past, labor conditions have greatly improved, and hard, dirty and tiring labor is gradually being replaced by machinery. "Under such circumstances, for the elderly, delayed retirement can better utilize their potential and make greater contributions to society." .
On the other hand, experts believe that the introduction of delayed retirement is related to the current situation of labor supply and demand in China. The number of China's working-age population has been declining since 2012, with an average annual decrease of more than 3 million, and the rate of decrease is increasing.
And among the new labor force, the proportion of those who have received higher education has exceeded half, and the average number of years of education is also increasing, reaching 13.7 years, with the age of starting work pushed back accordingly. This shows that the current retirement age is not adapted to the changes in labor supply and demand, and also results in a waste of human resources.
In addition, from the point of view of the population support rate, the implementation of delayed retirement age also has the importance and urgency. Zheng Bingwen, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and director of the World Social Security Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), said publicly a few days ago that in 2019 China's participation in the maintenance rate and the contribution maintenance rate were 37.7% and 47% respectively, and that if the current policy is not adjusted, the participation in the maintenance rate and the contribution maintenance rate will be more than 81% and 96.3% respectively in 2050; however, if a progressive reform program is adopted, and ultimately the male age of 65 and female age 60 However, if a gradual reform program is adopted, with men eventually retiring at age 65 and women at age 60, the participation and contribution rates are expected to be 51.4% and 65.5% in 2050.
The United Nations designated 1999 as the International Year of Older Persons and called for the establishment of a society for all ages. Tian Xueyuan, a member of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, also pointed out that the delayed retirement reflects respect for the labor rights of the elderly who have the ability to work, reflecting the concept of equality before labor.
How to implement delayed retirement?
Internationally, delaying the retirement age is a common practice among countries around the world to cope with the aging of the population, but each country has different regulations in terms of setting the retirement age and financial security for pensions. On the basis of foreign experience and China's national conditions, many experts have proposed that "selective retirement" can be used as a policy arrangement for the initial transition stage.
"The essence of selective retirement is to give the autonomy of the choice of retirement age to the individual, through the pension adjustment mechanism to strengthen the effective incentives for individuals to choose to delay retirement." Chi Fulin, president of the China (Hainan) Institute for Reform and Development, pointed out at a symposium that independent choice of different retirement ages and pension programs according to their own circumstances should be encouraged, such as workers in the normal retirement age before the choice of early retirement will deduct a certain percentage of the pension, delayed retirement after the normal retirement age will be increased by a certain percentage of the pension.
"Selective retirement" is both flexible and autonomous, although the abolition of the "one-size-fits-all" statutory retirement age, but still need to set the normal retirement age as the basic reference for independent choice. Tian Xueyuan thinks, can only set the starting age, not set the upper limit age; to the starting age, the extension of the extension of the retirement, the extension of how long, by the workers and employers to negotiate the decision; do not set the upper limit age of the extension of the retirement of the workers and employers based on the subjective and objective circumstances, including the employment time of the extension of the contract signed.
Additionally, scholars have called for a study of the actual situation in China to set up a timetable for the realization of different selective retirement ages for men and women in stages, and to adhere to the principles of fairness and specificity for different occupations and groups, and to take the lead in the implementation of autonomous selective delayed retirement in high-skill and high human capital industries.
According to the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, is currently working with relevant departments to study the specific reform program, not only to draw on internationally accepted practices and experience, but also to fully consider the reality of China's national conditions, etc., in the program research and development process will be widely listen to the views of all parties to ensure that the program is scientifically feasible and smooth implementation.
Doing a good job of "active ageing" article
In the process of aging, how to give better play to the role of the wealth of the elderly, change "passive" to "active", become a starting point for the introduction of delayed retirement policy. Become a starting point for the introduction of delayed retirement policy, "old age" also has a lot to do.
Mao Zongfu said, can guide some good health, work experience, re-employment of the elderly willing to "move" up, for the elderly to set up a flexible work system and allow telecommuting at home; can also guide the elderly to participate in public welfare undertakings, such as tourist attractions as a tour guide, in the community, village public welfare positions in ****build ****. The post to participate in the *** construction *** governance *** enjoyment and so on.
Currently, Internet technology has been widely used in all aspects of life, do a good job "old for" article is also inseparable from the science and technology "support", leveraging on the Internet, Internet of Things, big data and other technologies of the wisdom of the pension industry is also in the old man "Move" up to escort.
National People's Congress, Shanxi Province, Taiyuan City Public Security Bureau, Xinghualing Branch of the three bridges, deputy director of the police station and Jin Gangli community police Yang Rong, said to the China News Network reporter, the actual work often encountered a variety of situations involving the elderly, such as children are not around, the gas, plumbing forgot to turn off, etc., some of the older communities do not have the conditions for construction of the elderly dining tables, day care centers and other elderly service institutions.
To this end, Yang Rong suggested that the establishment of a standard system of health and elderly data, health data and elderly data integration to form a unified information resource base, not only to facilitate the accuracy of the doctor's diagnosis, the use of big data tracking, statistics on the use of medication, but also to facilitate the elderly institutions to understand and grasp the health information of the elderly.
The combination of medical care has also become a direction to deal with the aging society. Member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and director of the geriatrics department of Henan Provincial People's Hospital, Huang Chuangrong, told reporters that it is recommended that hospitals at all levels should attach great importance to the construction of geriatrics departments, which is not only an effective complement to the private elderly, but is also expected to alleviate the many problems brought about by the aging population.
The People's Hospital of Henan Province, where Huang Changrong is "comprehensive assessment of the elderly" software system, for example, but where the hospital departments admitted more than 65 years of age, suffering from a variety of diseases, geriatrics will be involved in the assessment, according to the need to give relevant treatment recommendations, so that elderly patients can get a more professional diagnosis and treatment.
Huang Changrong believes that based on the current status of China's aging society, the construction of geriatrics has ushered in a rare opportunity. "It is also good momentum for some factory and mining hospitals and electric power hospitals to do the transformation of health care integration."