Full text: Report on China's central, local budgets(6)

Spending on social security and employment reached 471.577 billion yuan, 106.8% of the budgeted figure and an increase of 23.9%. This figure consists of 50.248 billion yuan of central government spending and 421.329 billion yuan in transfer payments to local governments. We allocated 19.6 billion yuan in subsidies to extend the new old-age insurance for rural and urban residents to over 60% of the country and provide pension benefits for participants aged 60 and over. We provided living allowances totaling 31.1 billion yuan to more than 86 million people with financial difficulties, including urban and rural subsistence allowance recipients as well as childless and infirm rural residents receiving guarantees of food, clothing, medical care, housing, and burial expenses. We earmarked 184.69 billion yuan in subsidies to the basic retirement pension fund for enterprise employees to support efforts to increase basic pensions of enterprise retirees, with monthly benefits reaching over 1,500 yuan per person on average; to improve the overall planning system for basic retirement pension funds of enterprise workers at the provincial level; and extend coverage to uninsured retirees of collectively owned enterprises. A total of 79.74 billion yuan in subsidies was used to put in place a mechanism to raise social assistance and social security benefits when consumer prices rise, to raise average monthly subsistence allowances for urban and rural recipients from 251 and 117 yuan to 278 and 135 yuan respectively, to increase subsistence allowances for orphans, to provide more subsidies to help beggars and the homeless, and to support development of a social security system and a service system for people with disabilities. We spent 23.688 billion yuan to provide subsidies and living allowances to entitled groups and increase subsidy and allowance standards as needed, and 8.64 billion yuan to ensure basic living conditions of disaster victims. We supported policy-backed closures and bankruptcies of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and made proper arrangements for their laid-off workers. We also disbursed 41.384 billion yuan to expand fiscal and tax policies to encourage and support business startups, implement various policies to support employment, and increase subsidies to help pay interest on guaranteed small loans.

Spending on guaranteeing housing was 172.063 billion yuan, 133.1% of the budgeted figure and an increase of 52.8%. This figure consists of 32.882 billion yuan of central government spending and 139.181 billion yuan in transfer payments to local governments. Spending to accelerate the construction of low-income housing projects was 143.257 billion yuan, and adding the 28 billion yuan carried over from allocations for previous years, total spending reached 171.257 billion yuan.