A proposal has been made to increase the amount of child benefit paid to parents who only have one child, which has changed little since 1979 when China's family planning policy took effect.
Deputies at a meeting of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), which took place during the two sessions, suggested an increase to the subsidy.
The subsidy was intended to reward parents who only had one child for their contribution to the nation's development. It was fixed at five yuan ($0.8) per family in 1979, rose to 10 yuan in 1991, but has not been increased since, despite the cost of living having risen significantly over the decades.
But while parents in Beijing receive the full award, those in Shanghai only get five yuan, the lowest level in China.
Yu Jinyao, a CPPCC deputy and researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said 10 yuan is meaningless as it is too low nowadays to be considered a reward for only having one child, so a new standard is needed, Beijing Youth Daily Online reported Monday.
A mother from Beijing, surnamed Yan, who works in a government education organization and has a 19-year-old son, said she welcomes the proposal but it does not matter to her family since her son is an adult now.
"When I only earned 100 yuan a month, I did pay attention to this 10-yuan subsidy, but now incomes have risen to thousands of yuan every month, we don't notice it," she said.
Yan said that she received the money alongside her monthly salary.
"Given the [high] standard of living expenses, I was not happy with such an amount," she said.
An anonymous customer service employee from Beijing Municipal Commission of Population and Family Planning, said that parents will get the cash when they apply for a certificate to show they have only one child.
As well as guaranteeing the benefit, this certificate also means an only child can later have two children if they also marry another only child.
"Everyone who has only one child can apply for the certificate," she said.
"Mothers and fathers receive five yuan each, so that's 10 yuan for a family altogether. The money comes from the government," she said.
Parents' employers give the subsidy, but if they are unemployed the local residents committee will pay instead.
From 2008, Beijing families whose only child has died received a monthly stipend of 200 yuan, payable after the mother reaches the age of 49, said an employee from Beijing Chaoyang Family Planning Commission, surnamed Zhao.
"Apart from the 10-yuan subsidy, one-child families will also get 1,000 yuan upon retirement," said Zhao.
Zhao agreed that the amount of reward or compensation is not enough to cover high living expenses these days.
"But this is how the policy runs today," she said.
Ma Li, director of the China Population and Development Research Center, said that she thinks it is not worth upping the level of the subsidy.
"Ten yuan doesn't encourage people to have fewer children now," she said.
"Given the over 100 million families with a single child in China, the 10 yuan monthly award for each family is a huge government expense," she said.
The family planning policy has led to many social issues and may be abolished eventually, said Ma, pointing to a pensions crisis in the future, as there will be fewer young people to take care of an increasingly aging population.
The average annual income increased by 54 times from 1979 to 2006 for Beijing urbanites, the Beijing Morning Post reported in 2007.
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