By Zhang Liang, Research Institute of Public Administration and Human Resources, DRC

Research Report, No.276, 2021 (Total 6341) 2021-9-18

Abstract: In recent years, China’s special social assistance system has been continuously improved and financial input has gradually increased, which have led to remarkable achievements in meeting people’s basic living needs and taking targeted measures to reduce poverty. In the new era and in face of the new development tasks, special social assistance needs to further play the role in ensuring people’s basic living needs, but some constraints remain to be removed. For instance, the criteria set for the list of aid recipients are too wide in range, service categories are incomplete, the connections and collaborations between relief projects are not well coordinated, the participation of non-governmental entities is limited, and the level of information resources sharing is low. This paper notes that we need to combine the functions of special social assistance projects to set more scientific and specific criteria for providing assistance; we need to continuously enrich the content of assistance services according to the changing needs of aid recipients; we need to coordinate and promote the effective connections and collaborations between special social assistance projects and with other social security systems; we need to attract non-governmental entities to participate in special social assistance work in various ways; and we need to strengthen the integration and sharing of information related to special social assistance.

Keywords: special social assistance, play a role, main problems, policy options