A/HRC/45/14/Add.1 E. Social protection and the right to social security 36. China has succeeded, in an exceptionally short period of time, in substantially strengthening its social security and protection floor, which includes benefits for older persons.35 37. The core of the social assistance system is the Minimum Livelihood Guarantee for Urban and Rural Residents – i.e. the Urban and Rural Dibao – which provides cash or inkind support to poor households.36 Medical and Housing Assistance are specific assistance programmes that supplement the system.37 38. The implementation of social assistance programmes in China is a complicated process, with millions of beneficiaries.38 The Dibao scheme is based on household meanstesting, which is not always efficient in ensuring that every eligible person receives the benefit.39 Another eligibility criterion for a Dibao benefit is residency (i.e. Hukou).40 The Hukou system, introduced in 1958, divided the population into rural and urban, strictly limiting population migration between these areas in the command economy. It is a system required by law, which ties access to benefits such as public health care, social security and housing to the place of household registration.41 By forcing older urban migrants to return to their place of rural household registration to access these benefits, the system produces de facto discrimination.42 The Government pledged that by 2020, it would eliminate the distinction between agricultural and non-agricultural residence registration, but recent efforts to reform the Hukou system have not made substantial positive changes for many older migrants.43 39. China has also made significant progress in expanding its pension coverage from less than 200 million to about 850 million persons between 2005 and 2015,44 notably due to the basic protection for urban and rural older persons provided by the Basic Pension Scheme for Urban and Rural Residents. In 2014, China put in place the unified Basic Pension Scheme for Urban and Rural Residents by merging the Pilot New Rural Social Pension Scheme45 and the Pilot Social Pension Scheme for Urban Residents. This scheme basically covers the older population who are not covered by the urban employee’s pension scheme. China has now achieved almost universal coverage of at least minimum pension protection for its older population, even though the payouts amount to less than 40 per cent of the national poverty line.46 According to the Government, 30 million older persons also have access to the old-age State subsidy. 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 A/HRC/WG.6/31/CHN/1, para. 66; see also European Union-China Social Protection Reform Project, “Some striking features of the Chinese pension system” (September 2017), p. 4; cf. International Labour Office, Social Protection for Older Persons: Key Policy Trends and Statistics, Social Protection Policy Papers, No. 11 (Geneva, 2014). A/HRC/35/26/Add.2, para. 13. European Union-China Social Protection Reform Project, “Governance framework for social assistance administration and management processes”, p. 7. Ibid. See also European Union-China Social Protection Reform Project, “Some striking features of the Chinese pension system”; and www.stats.gov.cn/tjsj/ndsj/2019/indexeh.htm. European Union-China Social Protection Reform Project, “Universal pension systems: Chinese situation and prospects” (November 2018), p. 7. European Union-China Social Protection Reform Project, “Governance framework for social assistance administration and management processes”, p. 41. A/HRC/26/39/Add.2, para. 71. Ibid.; European Union-China Social Protection Reform Project, “Chinese situation and prospects”, p. 23. CERD/C/CHN/CO/14-17, para. 34. ILO, Social Protection for Older Persons: Policy Trends and Statistics 2017–19. Social Protection Policy Papers, No. 17 (Geneva, 2018), p. 13. ILO, “What drives old age work in China?”, Research Department Working Papers, No. 40 (Geneva, December 2018), p. 5. ILO, Social Protection for Older Persons: Policy Trends and Statistics 2017–19. Social Protection Policy Papers, No. 17 (Geneva, 2018), p. 24. 9