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Print Edition> Nation
UPDATED: October 24, 2011 NO. 43 OCTOBER 27, 2011
Tackling Urban Poverty
Despite fast development, many residents in Chinese cities struggle to find a decent life
By WANG HAIRONG
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Many other poor families also received assistance from the Five-Support Program. Under the program, Meng Qingjiang, who suffers from hemophilia, a bleeding disorder, receives 300 yuan ($46) a month from a sponsor company in addition to his monthly living allowance from the government. The additional allowance will be paid until Meng's son graduates from high school.

Ma Jian, who suffers from rachitis, a spine disorder, was a laid-off worker. Under the Five-Support Program, a hotel in the neighborhood offered his wife, who was also a laid-off worker, a job.

"Under the Five-Support Program, many poor families have gradually returned to a normal life," Sun said.

While the program is extremely successful, a small number of families are found to become dependent on assistance.

"We try to find jobs for those people with the ability to work instead of just giving them handouts," Sun said.

To help poor residents become financially independent, the neighborhood offers free training and career consulting services to unemployed residents and organizes regular job fairs.

Work incentives

How to protect people from poverty while giving them an incentive to work is a key issue in designing any poverty relief program.

Some minimum living allowance recipients prefer to live on the stipend rather than engage in low status jobs.

Regulations governing the minimum living allowance require local governments to promote employment and self-employment, and encourage working age allowance recipients with the ability to work to participate in community services organized by neighborhoods.

But, the regulations do not set a specific time limit for the payment of the minimum living allowance although it requires a family to report income changes, so that the allowance can be increased, decreased or withdrawn.

"Yet in reality, it is very difficult to stop living allowance payment as it is hard to know the actual incomes of recipient families due to flexible work hours and off-the-book incomes," said Han Keqing, a professor at the Renmin University of China.

In June 2010, national audit authorities said that 62,900 ineligible households had received 330 million yuan ($52 million) worth of minimum living allowance from 194 district or county governments. About 18 percent of these households owned private businesses, vehicles or more than two apartments.

"The equity and efficiency of the minimum living allowance system will be undermined if it includes ineligible recipients or excludes eligible recipients," Han said.

The Ministry of Civil Affairs announced last year that eligibility for the minimum living allowance would depend on assets including property, bank deposits, housing and vehicles. Previously, eligibility was determined only by a household's per-capita monthly income.

However, Han cautioned that the minimum living allowance system alone is not enough to alleviate urban poverty. "The system should be combined with housing, education, medical assistance programs and with employment promotion," he said.

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