People's livelihood is high on the agenda of the government, as is evidenced by the minimum guarantee for the livelihood improvement of the needy people in east China’s Jiangsu Province. Last year, Jiangsu focused on the improvement of people's livelihood by setting higher standards to improve the quality of poverty relief.
Li Hua, a full-time social worker, once again visited the home of Ni Jinchui to send her husband’s disability card. Ni and her husband Wu belong to low-income residents of Dongshan sub-district, Jiangning district, Nanjing.
Grandpa Wu, who is nearly 80 years old, has suffered from leg disabilities for many years. As he grows older, he has become bedridden due to the aggravated illness. The new card upgraded Granpa Wu from level-three disability to level-two, which will give the low-income family an additional 400 yuan of monthly basic allowance.
Much to Granma Ni’s surprise, the disability card was issued several days after the application had been submitted. The social workers also inquired about the health of Grandma Ni who had a lung tumor resection surgery half a year ago. Recovering from the follow-up treatment and rehabilitation, she is now worried over the medical expenses.
In order to take care of her sick parents, the elderly daughter Wu Huayu recently resigned her cleaner's job and moved to live with her parents. With the advice and help of the social workers, she applied on the spot for a flexible employment social insurance subsidy.
For Grandma Ni and her husband, the ability to weather the storm rests on the one hand with the government’s upgrading of the relief aid standards and on the other hand the change of the poverty relief for the people at the grassroots level.
In the past year, Jiangsu has strengthened its basic livelihood guarantee system and continuously raised its level of poverty relief. The average monthly minimum subsistence allowances for the urban and rural residents have reached 647 yuan and 611 yuan per person respectively, an increase of 5.9% and 9.3% year on year.
52% of the counties, county level cities or urban districts have realized the integration of urban and rural minimum living standards by unifying the medical assistance and the major illness insurance for urban-rural residents.
Low income residents can have their personal insurance premiums subsidized by the government after they get insured by the basic medical insurance. Patients of grave illnesses from low income families are included in the medical assistance program.
(Source:Jiangsu International Channel)
