Research on the Responsibility Issue of China's Pension Insurance

Author: Peng Gaojian
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2005-10-01
Features: The issue of elderly care has become a global social problem. While developing the economy, how to address the increasingly severe aging situation is a major challenge China faces in the 21st century. Currently, research on elderly care insurance both domestically and internationally often starts from an economic or sociological perspective, with fewer analyses from a legal standpoint. This paper argues that the solution to the elderly care problem requires the involvement of legal measures, making it a legal issue as well. Reasonably dividing the responsibilities of the state, enterprises, and individuals in the elderly care insurance system is key to the success of elderly care insurance. The main purpose of this paper is to attempt an analysis of the responsibility issue in elderly care insurance from a legal perspective. During the writing process of this book, the author utilized materials accumulated from participating in elderly care insurance legislative activities, combining theory and practice, and employing historical and comparative methods to conduct a comprehensive study of the core issue of elderly care insurance—responsibility.
This book first analyzes the theoretical aspects of the responsibility issue in elderly care insurance, including the meaning and classification of responsibility, as well as the causes of obligation and legal responsibility. Subsequently, it reviews the development of elderly care insurance responsibility theories both in China and abroad, with a particularly in-depth analysis of the concept of social joint responsibility. The author argues that the idea of social joint responsibility has become the guiding principle for elderly care insurance system reforms in many countries around the world, and the World Bank’s three-pillar elderly care insurance model should serve as a reference for all nations. For China, although nearly two decades of elderly care insurance reforms have been explored, there is still a considerable gap to bridge before establishing the three-pillar model. To this end, the book analyzes the main problems in China’s current elderly care insurance system and proposes a framework for reconstructing the elderly care insurance system based on the three-pillar model. It advocates for a broad coverage and low level of the basic elderly care insurance provided by the state, the mandatory implementation of occupational annuities, and continued encouragement of the role of individuals and families in elderly care insurance.
The book also applies this concept to the construction of elderly care insurance systems for farmers, civil servants, public institution employees, self-employed individuals, freelancers, and cross-border migrants. Given the importance of establishing and enforcing legal responsibility in maintaining the normal operation of the elderly care insurance system, the book analyzes the legal responsibilities that the state, enterprises, and individuals may bear at different levels of the three-pillar model. At the same time, to ensure the implementation of legal responsibility and fully protect the legitimate rights and interests of parties involved, the book explores the enforcement mechanisms for elderly care insurance legal responsibility. It analyzes the problems in the supervision and inspection, arbitration, administrative reconsideration, administrative litigation, and civil litigation of social insurance and proposes corresponding improvement suggestions.
The final part of the book points out that legal measures must be involved in elderly care insurance reforms. When conditions are ripe, laws and regulations should replace policy documents to enhance the authority and stability of the elderly care insurance system.