Recently, the Ministry of Civil Affairs and other seven departments jointly issued the "Guiding Opinions on Strengthening the Supervision of Advance Fees for Pension Institutions" (hereinafter referred to as the "Guiding Opinions") to standardize the advance fees of pension institutions. The "Guiding Opinions" specifically mentions that the pre-collection period of pension service fees shall not exceed 12 months, and the refund in accordance with the agreement shall not be refused.
Previously, Henan, Jiangxi, Shandong and other provinces have issued relevant regulations to strengthen the supervision of the pre-charge and membership fees of pension institutions in the province, but there are certain differences in standards.
A few days ago, the Red Star News reporter interviewed nursing homes in many provinces and found that most of the fees did not exceed the standards in the "Guiding Opinions", but some pension institutions will guide customers to increase the amount of advance payment through discounts and other forms. Relevant experts said that the unified standards nationwide will help the orderly development of pension institutions.
▲ Data with pictures According to ICphoto
Seven departments issued a document to standardize the advance fees of pension institutions
Clarify the three "safety bottom lines"
A few days ago, the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Finance, the People's Bank of China, the State Administration of Market Regulation, and the State Administration of Financial Supervision jointly issued the "Guiding Opinions" to regulate the advance fees of pension institutions.
The "Guiding Opinions" mentions that pension institutions are encouraged to provide services to the elderly by charging fees in the current month. Provincial-level civil affairs departments may, in conjunction with relevant departments, determine the maximum period of advance collection of local pension service fees and the maximum amount of deposit according to local conditions, but the period of advance collection of pension service fees shall not exceed 12 months, and the deposit collected for a single elderly person shall not exceed 12 times the monthly bed fee of the elderly.
In addition, pension institutions shall not use standard clauses to set unreasonable refund restrictions, exclude or restrict the rights of the elderly, increase the responsibilities of the elderly, reduce or exempt the responsibilities of the pension institutions. False or misleading publicity must not be made, and the elderly or their agents must not be induced to pay advance fees by promising to repay principal and interest, or giving other investment returns.
The Guiding Opinions also clearly stipulate the purpose of advance fees, refund requirements, and capital supervision.
On May 10, the Ministry of Civil Affairs held a regular press conference for the second quarter of 2024 to interpret the "Guiding Opinions".
Li Banghua, deputy director of the Department of Pension Services of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, introduced at the press conference that the "Guiding Opinions" clarified three "safety bottom lines". The first is to strictly prohibit elderly care institutions from "selling more than one bed" in excess of the bed supply capacity; The second is to strictly limit the use of prepaid fees for pension institutions; Article 3 is to make it clear that the elderly and their families shall not be induced to pay fees by promising to repay principal and interest, giving other investment returns, etc., which is a typical illegal fund-raising behavior.
Some nursing homes have problems such as "thunderstorms".
Some institutions are involved in more than 800 million yuan
The "Guiding Opinions" mentioned that in recent years, some pension institutions have adopted the method of pre-charging operation, which has alleviated the problems of insufficient funds for facility construction to a certain extent and relieved the operating pressure. However, there are also a small number of pension institutions with non-standard management and use of funds, "difficult to refund", "thunder" and "runaway" after the capital chain is broken, and even some criminals carry out illegal fund-raising, fraud and other criminal acts, which seriously damage the legitimate rights and interests of the elderly.
The Red Star News reporter searched the judgment document network and found that there were 611 documents with "nursing home illegal fundraising" as the keyword, and 429 documents could be searched with "nursing home refund" as the keyword.
Among them, a 2019 criminal ruling of the Inner Mongolia High Court shows that from December 2009 to May 2015, the defendant Liu and others carried out a lifelong pension business, promising to the public to pay a certain amount of maintenance fees at one time and enjoy lifelong pension. In Inner Mongolia, Hebei Province, Gansu Province, Heilongjiang Province, Anhui Province, Jiangsu Province, Shandong Province and other places, more than 1,000 pension personnel were recruited, and a total of 34,059,924 yuan of maintenance fees were defrauded. Among them, there were 233 cases of fraudulent maintenance fees for elderly people living in the elderly with an amount of 10,154,264 yuan, and 469 cases of fraudulent maintenance fees for those who did not live in the elderly with an amount of 23,905,660 yuan.
After that, the two defendants also used high interest rates as bait to defraud a loan of 92,121,387 yuan on the grounds that the nursing home was in urgent need of funds and expanding the nursing home. The total amount involved is more than 126 million. In the end, the two defendants were sentenced to life imprisonment and 10 years in prison for the crime of fundraising fraud.
In 2023, the case was announced by the Ministry of Civil Affairs as one of the seven typical cases of fraud in the field of elderly care services.
The Red Star News reporter noticed that in the seven typical cases announced by the Ministry of Civil Affairs, pension institutions illegally absorbed public deposits or raised funds in the name of remote pension, lifelong pension, pre-sale of pension service cards, and gift of bed subsidy coupons. Among them, the Hunan Love Heart Elderly Apartment case, the amount involved reached 811 million yuan, which was the highest among these cases.
▲In a nursing home in Binzhou, Shandong Province, volunteers teach the elderly to use smartphones. According to Visual China
Many nursing homes use discounts to encourage pre-deposits
Regulations vary from province to province
Recently, Red Star News reporters through telephone consultation, interviews with customers, query public data and other ways to understand the charges of many nursing homes in different provinces across the country, most of which in the pension service fee pre-collection and deposit do not exceed the standards in the "Guiding Opinions", but many nursing homes will encourage customers to prepay more fees through preferential discounts and other ways.
A nursing home in Daxing, Beijing, said that a deposit of 10,000 yuan is required to move in, and monthly payment is supported, but if you choose to pay monthly, there will be a placement fee of 1,200 yuan when you move in, and if you choose to pay semi-annually, you can save this fee. The other two nursing homes consulted by the reporter are paid monthly, but they need to pay 40,000 yuan and four months as a deposit respectively, which does not exceed the standard of "12 months".
Ms. Zeng's maternal grandparents lived in a relatively high-end elderly care institution in Changsha, and she told the Red Star News reporter that the two elderly people had a room alone at that time, and the room fee, nursing fee, meal fee and other miscellaneous expenses added up to about 30,000 yuan per month. When they moved in for the first time, they were required to deposit $100,000 in the nursing home, and they could decide the amount of the deposit after the deposit was used up.
In some of the nursing home fees announced by the county government, some also have a one-time payment of fees to enjoy a discount. The fee standard announced by a nursing home in Junan County, Linyi, Shandong Province mentions that those who pay a one-time fee for one year will receive a discount of 800 yuan. A nursing home in Pingyi County announced the fee standard in March this year, mentioning that the fee is paid first and then moved in, and the fee is paid on a monthly basis. A one-time prepayment of half a year's fee, 5% of the profit will be charged; A one-time advance payment of 1 year fee will be charged at 10%; A one-time advance payment of 200,000 yuan will be exempted from bed fees.
The reporter noted that before the issuance of the "Guiding Opinions", some provinces have issued relevant documents to regulate pre-fees and capital supervision, but the implementation standards of different provinces are different.
The Regulations on Elderly Care Services in Henan Province, which came into effect in October 2022, stipulate that if a pension institution collects a service fee in advance, the amount shall not exceed three months' service fee. If a deposit is collected, the amount shall not exceed one month's service fee. The fees collected shall be stored in a special account, and the third-party depository method of commercial banks shall be adopted to ensure the safety of fund management and use.
The Jiangsu Provincial Pension Service Regulations, revised in 2022, stipulate that the amount of service fees charged in advance shall not exceed six months' worth of service fees.
The standard implemented in Hunan is that "in principle, it will be charged on a monthly basis, and the maximum period of one-time fee collection shall not exceed one year". Jiangxi also stipulates that it will be charged on a monthly basis, "if the two parties agree to pay the pension service fee for a certain period of time in advance, it should be specified in the pension service contract, but the maximum period shall generally not exceed 12 months." ”
The Measures for the Administration of Service Charges for Elderly Care Institutions in Shanghai, issued in 2021, stipulate that bed fees and care fees are charged on a monthly basis in principle, but there is no maximum period.
What the experts say:
Harmonized standards at the national level
It is conducive to the healthy development of the pension industry
For the seven departments jointly issued the "Guiding Opinions", Jin Li, vice president of Southern University of Science and Technology, who has long been concerned about the pension issue, believes that in the context of vigorously developing pension-related industries and boosting the development level of the silver economy, it is necessary for the state to carry out a systematic planning and standardized management of ageing finance-related issues.
Jin Li said that in the past, each province had its own policies, some were loose and some were strict, and there was a lack of coordination mechanisms at the national level. As a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, he has also put forward many suggestions, hoping to introduce a unified policy at the national level, so that many cross-provincial and cross-regional pension institutions can comply with a unified standard.
"From the national level, we should sort out and unify the systems that are not connected and not connected in various provinces, which will not only increase the burden on pension institutions, but also protect the interests of consumers, and in turn can improve consumers' trust in private nursing institutions, which is conducive to their development."
Jin Li also believes that in addition to strengthening supervision, we should also see the difficulties of pension institutions. "The pension industry has a large investment, a long cycle, and a thin profit margin, and some private pension institutions are difficult to operate, so there will be problems such as misappropriation of funds and thunder." Ding Mei, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and full-time deputy chairman of the Tianjin Municipal Committee of the Democratic League, also mentioned in an interview with the media that in recent years, the shortage of money and people in pension institutions has become more and more serious.
In this regard, Huang Shisong, a senior researcher at the National Institute of Development and Strategy of Chinese University, once suggested in an interview that the mortgage financing policy for for-profit pension institutions should be improved, and various financial institutions should be encouraged to develop financial products for the pension service industry to support pension institutions to ease financial pressure.
Jin Li said that in addition to regulatory policies, the state will definitely pay attention to the operating pressure of private nursing institutions, introduce other policies to ease the pressure, and encourage the healthy development of private nursing institutions. (Red Star News)