China’s social security cover expands: report

China's social security coverage has been expanding but the quality of service has shown a trend of decline, according to a report on China's 2012 social security development index.

The report, which was released on Wednesday by the China Social Security Research Center under the Central University of Finance and Economics, said China's social security network was operating at a mid-to-low level in 2011.

"As more people have joined the social security system, the expanding number naturally took its toll on the quality of the service," said Chu Fuling, director of the China Social Security Research Center, adding that scholars and officials need to pay greater attention to the trend.

"The conclusion that the quality of service has shown a trend of decline could mislead people to think that the quality of social security is becoming poorer. That is because the 2011 data is based on a larger pool of pension recipients," Tuo Guozhu, a professor from the Capital University of Economics and Business, told the Global Times on Thursday.

According to Tuo, China started to include farmers in its social security system in 2009.

"Farmers receive less pension funds than urban residents and their population is large. Therefore, the overall social security level is not high," said Tuo, adding that the move is of great significance for the Chinese farmers as well as for social equality.

"In fact, China's social security has made rapid progress in recent years," said Tuo.

Xu Wenhu, dean of the insurance department at Fudan University, disagreed.

"Social security has been improving very slowly in recent years. It could not catch up with people's demands and could not cancel out the effects of inflation, which is a major reason for people to feel unsatisfied," Xu said.

The index showed that "sustainability" of social security had fallen but "fairness" of social security had improved in 2011, the report said.

It also pointed to high imbalances in the social security development among different provinces.

By the end of 2012, more than 483 million Chinese from both urban and rural areas had their pensions and insurance covered, an increase of 151.87 million people compared to 2011, according to the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security.

Since 2008, China has been looking to increase the retirement age because of a shrinking workforce and an aging society, news portal people.com.cn reported last week.

The decision, however, was opposed by a majority of the Chinese, as revealed in a recent survey conducted by the same news portal.