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Nation seeks solution to pension gaps
Print Edition
PROPOSED reforms to the pension scheme for China’s civil servants have grabbed public attention and divided opinion.
The public generally says it’s unfair that government officials and civil servants do not need to pay into the country’s pension pool and enjoy higher annuities after retirement than their peers from enterprises and agriculture.
China adopts different pension schemes for enterprise employees, rural residents, urban dwellers and workers with government and government-sponsored institutions. This has caused a gap in pension payments, Zheng Gongcheng, a professor with Renmin University of China, told the People’s Daily, flagship newspaper of the Communist Party of China.
The lack of a uniform and centralized pension system has led to imbalanced payments in different regions, Zheng said.
The divergence has impaired the fairness and sustainability of the country’s pension system, the professor said.
According to a key decision by the CPC published last year, the pension system for government and public institution employees will be reformed.
Civil servants should pay their fair share into the pension pool as do other citizens, wrote Internet user “tanglamanque” on Sina Weibo, China’s Twitter.
“Civil servants should not be a privileged group. They are entitled to equal rights as other citizens but should also perform equal duty without exception,” said Weibo user “huchengxueshi”.
However, a proposed change to tally officials’ pension with other citizens’ schemes has also led to dissatisfaction, especially from grassroots public servants.
Compared with their peers in enterprises, public servants’ salaries are generally lower and they are bearing no less pressure, said netizen “wodemingzijiaoshishier”, indicating that a higher pension after retirement would be proper.
In an article by Shang Yang and published in Wednesday’s edition of the People’s Daily, the author said an ill-thought-out new pension scheme to address the current imbalance might give rise to more unfair treatment of public servants.
According to Professor Zheng, efforts to end the disparity in schemes among public servants and ordinary people will be an inevitable move in the country’s pension reform.
In a pilot program in Shenzhen, civil servants are required to pay premiums for future annuities, as do other people.
“For me, being a pubic servant is my only option and a uniform pension system makes it easier for me to change jobs, since I won’t have to work about my previous inputs,” said a public servant surnamed Yang in Shenzhen in Guangdong Province.
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