According to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics, the number of births in the mainland in 2023 will be 9.02 million, a decrease of 540,000 from the previous year. By the end of 2023, the national population aged 60 and above will be 296.97 million, an increase of 16.93 million from the previous year.
The number of births continues to decline and the elderly population has grown substantially, which means that the number of people who pay pension insurance is decreasing, while the number of pensioners is increasing. It is estimated that by 2050, a labor force will have to support a retired elderly, and the pressure will be very high.
Therefore, Zheng Bingwen, director of the World Social Security Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, suggested that young people should start preparing for retirement earlier, and the sooner the better.
Experts are calling on young people to prepare for retirement as soon as possible, but more and more young people don't even want to pay social security.
According to data released by the National Health Insurance Administration, by the end of 2022, only 52.72 million flexible workers in mainland China had participated in medical insurance, but more than 200 million people in mainland China were flexibly employed.
There may be several considerations for the growing number of young people who are reluctant to pay social security.
First of all, income is unstable, especially when the current employment environment is not so good, and you can lose your job at any time. However, social security is a fixed monthly expense, and if it is paid on time, the pressure is not small.
Second, there is a high degree of variability in the workplace. If you pay social security in a city and want to move your social security, it is also possible, but it is very troublesome, after all, the payment standards and benefits enjoyed in each city are different.
Third, with the implementation of the delayed retirement policy, young people need to pay social security for a longer period of time, and the social security contribution base and proportion are also increasing year by year, which means that they need to pay more social security premiums for young people, further exacerbating their financial burden and uncertainty about the future.
Many people feel that they are still young and that it is time to use money. The pension insurance will be paid for 15 years, and the medical insurance will be longer, at least 20 years. This is a huge expense, based on 2,200 yuan per month in Shanghai, it is 26,400 yuan a year, and 396,000 yuan in 15 years. In fact, there is more than that, because the social security base has been rising year after year.
Counting the benefits, delaying retirement is already a sure thing, and it is said that it may eventually delay retirement until the age of 65. At present, the replacement rate of employee pensions is only 40%, and the pension replacement rate of urban and rural residents is even lower.
Zheng Bingwen said that due to the deepening of the aging population, the old-age support rate has increased year by year, and the pressure on the replacement rate of basic pension insurance to decline is very great. By 2050, it is possible that the replacement rate will drop to 20%, for example, your monthly salary before retirement is 8,000 yuan, and the monthly pension after retirement is only 1,600 yuan. So, you do the math how many years it takes to pay for itself.
A series of uncertain factors have made young people shy away from social security and have to choose to give up. Simply criticizing them for focusing only on short-term interests may fail to fully understand their actual predicament.
How to solve the problem of social security for young people?
It is undeniable that the risk is also high if it is completely detached from social security. Faced with this situation, we found that many flexible workers do not lack social protection, but actually need more flexibility to be able to choose a protection plan that matches their financial situation.
Taking delivery riders as an example, many delivery riders choose the protection combination of "NCMS + occupational injury insurance".
First of all, let's talk about "occupational injury insurance" to solve the problem of work-related injury insurance. "Occupational Injury Insurance" is a new type of social insurance introduced by the government for groups such as food delivery riders, which was launched in July 2022. This insurance is no different from traditional workers' compensation insurance, but it has more advantages.
First, pay according to the order, pay the bill alone, the money is paid by the takeaway platform, and the takeaway rider does not have to pay. For example, in the food delivery industry, each platform needs to pay 6 cents for the rider's occupational injury insurance premium. This is completely different from the commercial insurance that the rider pays 3 yuan by himself.
Second, the amount of insurance is larger and more extensive. The maximum amount of compensation for commercial insurance is 650,000 yuan, but the maximum compensation for occupational injury insurance is 1 million. The reimbursement speed is also fast, for example, Wang Haixing, a takeaway brother in Dazhou, Sichuan, collided with a taxi on the way and was hospitalized with a right foot injury. After the incident, he applied for an occupational injury insurance claim through a "one-click report", and the medical payment advanced by the insurance company arrived on the same day.
At present, platforms such as Meituan, Huolala, and Cao Cao have joined in, and the platforms pay for occupational injury insurance for food delivery riders, online car-hailing drivers and other people. According to data released by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, by the end of 2023, 7.31 million people have been covered by the occupational injury insurance coverage of employees in new forms of employment.
Let's talk about the "New Rural Cooperative Medical System" to solve the medical security. The "New Rural Cooperative Medical Insurance" is a basic medical security system for rural residents. The annual cost of NCMS is relatively low, only 300-400 yuan a year, and you can get a similar level of protection as employee medical insurance, which makes it the preferred medical insurance solution for the vast majority of food delivery riders.
The protection combination of "NCMS + Occupational Injury Insurance" is an innovation. It is hoped that the pilot scope of occupational injury insurance will continue to expand to provide a guarantee for more flexible employees.
A healthy social security system should involve everyone. If you have money, you pay more, you don't have money, and everyone enjoys it, which is the meaning of social security.