Guangzhou government officials last November announced that a new policy on endowment insurance allows rural residents to buy endowment insurance which is available at seven premium rates ranging from 10 yuan to 130 yuan.
Under the new policy, the government pays a monthly elderly pension of 110 yuan, higher than the nation's 55-yuan monthly elderly pension standard requiring Guangzhou to allocate another 400 million yuan from city coffers to cover expenses.
The municipal government currently funds 91 percent of the premium payments for individuals and collective economic groups. The highest subsidy reaches 130 percent of the minimum premium. Subsidies are expected to increase as premiums rise.
As of December 28, a total of 824,000 Guangzhou rural residents were covered by endowment insurance, including 687,000 people covered by the new rural insurance. Another 137,000 rural residents aged 35 and above are also included in the basic endowment insurance plan for urban employees.
The total number of rural residents insured represents 108.4 percent of the target set by the municipal government for this year and the overall coverage of endowment insurance is now 75 percent.
