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Social assistance in S hanghai: Dynamics between social protection and informal employment
Author(s) -
Wong YuCheung,
Chen Honglin,
Zeng Qun
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
international journal of social welfare
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.664
H-Index - 47
eISSN - 1468-2397
pISSN - 1369-6866
DOI - 10.1111/ijsw.12048
Subject(s) - restructuring , government (linguistics) , demographic economics , social assistance , safety net , business , social protection , economic growth , labour economics , political science , economics , finance , linguistics , philosophy , law
C hina's social assistance programme ( dibao 低保) was introduced in S hanghai in 1993 and gradually extended to cover all urban areas by 1998. Due to massive economic restructuring, starting in the early 1990s, many urban dibao recipients were laid‐off, that is, state‐owned enterprise ( SOE ) employees. S hanghai was the epicentre of SOE reform, and the dibao system was primarily introduced to provide a safety net for laid‐off workers. In 2010, approximately 3 per cent of urban, permanent residents were on dibao , and 72 per cent of its recipients were working‐age adults. We conducted longitudinal qualitative interviews five times over 2 years with 40 dibao families that contained adults of working age in a S hanghai district. The current study demonstrates how they managed their employment, income and the dibao system. Findings suggested that, for various reasons, there was insufficient motivation for recipients to gain reemployment and leave dibao . Furthermore, local cadres, which were responsible for assessing and recommending dibao applicants to the district government, likely just assumed the incomes of adults with working capabilities.