Farmers become migrant workers to boost pensions(2)

The rural endowment insurance guarantees that rural residents in Kaixian can receive monthly pensions of 80 to 170 yuan when they reach age 60 after they have contributed 100 to 500 yuan a year for 15 years, he said.

The more money they contribute, the bigger the pension.

"But that amount can hardly cover the cost of living, so many farmers continue to work outside when they turn 55 or even 60," said Yuan.

Liu Xing, a social security official in Renshou county, Sichuan province, said migrants usually have contributed to endowment insurance for urban working groups for around eight years by the time they turn 50.

Sometimes the contribution pauses when they change jobs.

Last year, 203 migrants who had contributed to the insurance quit because they reached the retirement age but had not yet contributed for 15 years, Liu said.

Workers who quit the insurance can get back the sum they paid into the pension accounts. But they cannot get what their employers have paid for them.

Lu Quan, a social security expert with Renmin University of China, said migrants who have not participated in an endowment insurance program for working groups have to rely on their families in their old age.

Another way is that local governments can raise the pension for rural endowment insurance collectors, he suggested.

To prevent young migrant workers from facing the same old-age pension problems their parents have, measures should be taken to ensure that endowment insurance for working groups covers all migrants, Lu said.

"Labor-law enforcement authorities should strengthen efforts to make employers sign employment contracts with workers and make employers' responsible for paying workers' endowment insurance bills a clause in the contracts," he said.

Eighteen percent of the 250 million migrant workers in China had joined the endowment insurance for urban working group by the end of last year, according to the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security.

In general, the pension produced by endowment insurance for workers is much higher than the sum produced by endowment insurance for rural residents.