Xinhua Vision|How does the accumulated amount exceed 3 trillion yuan for the first time, and the enterprise annuity benefits more employees?

As an important part of the second pillar of pension insurance, enterprise annuity is an important supplement to employees' pension money. Recently, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security released data showing that by the end of 2023, the amount of enterprise annuity accumulation in the country exceeded 3 trillion yuan for the first time, reaching 3.19 trillion yuan, and 31.44 million employees participated.

Compared with the number of people participating in basic pension insurance, the participation rate of enterprise annuity is still low. How to motivate more enterprises to join this system and better protect the life of employees after retirement? "Xinhua Viewpoint" reporters interviewed authoritative departments and experts.

The insurance participation rate is only 8%, and the future space is huge

The so-called enterprise annuity refers to the supplementary endowment insurance established by the enterprise and its employees on the basis of participating in the basic endowment insurance; When employees retire, they can receive an extra pension money.

The annual contribution of the enterprise shall not exceed 8% of the total wages of the employees of the enterprise in the previous year, and the total contribution of the enterprise and the individual employees shall not exceed 12% of the total wages of the employees of the enterprise in the previous year.

"In the past 20 years, the enterprise annuity has grown from scratch and continued to grow. Now many retired workers have received enterprise annuities, which is equivalent to an extra guarantee in addition to the basic pension insurance benefits, and the role of supplementing the pension has initially appeared. Jin Weigang, vice president of the National System Research Institute of Zhejiang University, said, but from the perspective of coverage, the development of the enterprise annuity system is not sufficient, and it has not been able to play its due role in the multi-level pension insurance system.

By the end of 2023, enterprise annuities have been established in more than 140,000 enterprises across the country, and the proportion of participating enterprises is significantly lower than the total number of more than 180 million business entities.

"Enterprise annuities in Germany, the United States and other countries can cover about half of the employed population, and the number of employees insured by mainland enterprise annuities accounts for only 8% of the total number of employees who are eligible for insurance; With the addition of occupational pensions, the coverage rate of the second pillar is 15%. This gap is not only related to the high level of protection of the first pillar of basic pension insurance in the mainland and the short establishment time of the second pillar, but also shows that the development of enterprise annuity is still insufficient, and the future space is huge. Zheng Gongcheng, president of the Chinese Social Security Association, said.

"In addition to factors such as the weak profitability and weak contribution ability of some enterprises, many enterprises have little understanding of the enterprise annuity policy, or mistakenly believe that they can be replaced by future earnings such as options and equity. There are also some private enterprises that give up because they do not adapt to the relevant procedures and rules, even if they have the ability and willingness to pay. Some small and micro enterprises are trapped in the lack of professional operations, frequent employee turnover, and the continuation of the enterprise annuity relationship is difficult to prohibit. These are all practical problems that hinder the effective expansion of enterprise annuities. Hu Xiaoyi, president of the China Social Insurance Society, said.

On the other hand, enterprise annuities are also affected by employees' willingness to participate. According to Du Zhifeng, deputy director of the pension insurance department of the Beijing Municipal Human Resources and Social Security Bureau, the increase in labor mobility, the willingness of workers to pursue short-term benefits rather than long-term hidden benefits, and the pursuit of free and flexible working methods by young people have all impacted the relatively traditional operating mechanism of annuities. How to adapt to the new workplace relationship and the changing employment situation should be the next direction of adjustment of the annuity system.

How to attract enterprises and employees to join?

"In the context of the current business pressure and social security burden, we should first strengthen policy support, further reduce the burden on employers, support small and medium-sized enterprises and even individual industrial and commercial households, social organizations, etc. to establish or jointly establish enterprise annuities, and continue to expand the coverage of enterprise annuities." Zheng Gongcheng said.

Unlike the first pillar of basic pension insurance enterprises must participate, the government mainly encourages and guides the second pillar of enterprise annuity. The non-mandatory nature of the policy means that the employer needs to find a balance between policy and profit.

According to the reporter's understanding, although the social security insurance rate has been lowered many times in recent years, the proportion of "five insurances and one housing fund" paid by employers in the total wages of employees is still about 35%. In this case, allowing enterprises to establish long-term welfare arrangements for employees depends on the profitability of enterprises and the government's fiscal and tax support on the one hand, and on the other hand, it is also necessary for enterprises to realize the incentive effect of participating in the annuity system on talents.

"Fiscal and tax support is important, but it is best to achieve the development of enterprise annuity through policy innovation without increasing the financial burden and enterprise costs." Nie Mingjun, chairman of the board of supervisors of the National Pension Insurance Co., Ltd., said that on the basis of rigorous calculation and not affecting the current payment of pensions, the basic pension insurance unit contribution rate should be considered from 16% to "14% + 2%", of which 2% is used to establish an enterprise annuity and form an enterprise annuity system with Chinese characteristics.

Nie Mingjun's suggestion is similar to the "automatic joining" mechanism explored by many countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Denmark, and New Zealand in recent years - young people will automatically join the enterprise annuity as soon as they join the work, and the participation rate is very high, which can achieve the good effect of basic pension insurance and enterprise annuity working together to ensure retirement life.

The high threshold for participation and the cumbersome application process are also important factors affecting the participation of enterprises in the annuity system. A number of experts proposed to vigorously simplify the procedures for handling enterprise annuities, improve the convenience of establishing, transferring, suspending and resuming enterprise annuities, and reduce the decision-making costs of small and medium-sized enterprises.

"The flexibility of enterprise annuity payment should be increased, and enterprises should be allowed to start from a low proportion and a small range based on their own characteristics, such as covering some employees who have made outstanding contributions to the unit first, and then gradually expanding." Zheng Wei, director of the China Insurance and Social Security Research Center at Peking University, said.

In addition, experts generally call for opening up the second and third pillars of pension insurance, that is, the personal pension paid by employees can be transferred to the enterprise annuity, and if the resignation or the new unit does not establish an annuity, the funds in the personal account of the original enterprise annuity can be transferred to the personal pension; At the same time, it is necessary to build a unified national enterprise annuity information platform to achieve one-stop inquiry, so that "money goes with people" and no loss of rights and interests due to personal flow.

How can funds better maintain and increase their value?

In addition to expanding coverage, increasing the rate of return is also a key to the development of the enterprise annuity system. The preservation and appreciation of surplus funds will directly affect the enthusiasm of enterprises and employees to participate in the annuity system.

So, who invests and manages enterprise annuities?

It is understood that the human resources and social security department has selected more than 20 financial institutions as the investment managers of the enterprise annuity to take care of the money, and the income generated will be incorporated into the enterprise annuity fund, and finally enter the "money bag" of the employees. In the past two years, in order to encourage annuity investment to achieve better returns, the state has gradually expanded the investment scope of annuity funds.

According to the data of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, from 2007 to 2023, the average annual income of the national enterprise annuity fund will reach 6.26%, except for a few years of losses, most of the years have maintained good returns.

Mr. Zhang, an employee of a shipping company in Weihai, Shandong Province, told reporters that he has paid an enterprise annuity for 14 years, and generally at the end of the year, he will go to his personal account to see the cumulative amount and income, and he can generally "run" the growth rate of the consumer price index. Since annuities are compound interest investments, the more you accumulate and the longer you are, the higher the amount you can receive in the future.

However, the sluggish investment environment in recent years has put pressure on the fund to maintain long-term stable returns, which is not conducive to enhancing the attractiveness of annuities.

"This requires financial institutions to innovate enterprise annuity products and add value. Although enterprise annuities are policy-oriented, they are still financial products in general, and they should give full play to the product effect - that is, to attract more enterprises to establish annuities by increasing income. Zheng Gongcheng said.

"While financial institutions improve their investment and management capabilities, they should also establish an evaluation system and incentive mechanism that are compatible with the development of enterprise annuities, adopt a diversified assessment method and a long-term assessment period, and encourage long-term investment and higher returns by optimizing payment methods." Cao Deyun, executive vice president of the Insurance Asset Management Association of China, suggested.

"At present, the capital market has entered a period of low interest rates, which puts forward higher requirements for the investment strategy and investment ability of financial institutions." Tian Jun, vice president of Taikang Pension Insurance Co., Ltd., said that institutions can further expand the investment scope of enterprise annuities, and reduce the risk of fund investment by including low-correlation and diversified varieties, such as infrastructure public REITs (real estate investment trusts), equity investment, etc.; At the same time, it actively explores the multi-trustee management plan of large-scale enterprise annuities to improve the quality of service. (Reporter Jiang Lin, Chen Xu)