中国式“福利依赖”的制度设计探源——北京市城市居民最低生活保障制度案例研究

Exploring Welfare Dependency in China: A Case Study of the Minimum Living Guarantee System in Beijing

本文通过对北京市25户低保家庭的长期跟踪调查,总结分析了中国制度背景下福利依赖的类型及原因。中国低保制度把多种福利与低保资格捆绑在一起,收入和资产审查缺乏可操作性,制度设计上促进就业政策基本失效。以上这几方面构成了福利依赖的制度设计原因。从这个意义上来说,中国的福利依赖原因很大程度上并不是救助福利丰厚,而是福利缺失所致,即失去低保资格会使家庭的很多风险失去保护,并且我国缺乏家计调查和工作福利制的可操作性,这些与发达国家有关"福利依赖"问题的争论有着根本的区别。

Based on a longitudinal study of 25 recipient households of the Minimum Living Guarantee System （MLGS） in urban Beijing, the author summarizes the styles of the welfare dependency in the Chinese context and explained its reasons. There are mainly three institutional reasons： Firstly, other welfare benefit programs are tied with MLGS, so people who want to get other benefits have to stay in the MLGS. Secondly, because most of these families have income from informal sources and these income are hard to cheek, so means-testing is not easy to practice. Thirdly, the ＂work.fare design＂ in China is of little effect because employment opportunities at local level cannot be arranged by the local government. Therefore, the basic reason of welfare dependency in China is not due to the high benefit levels. Instead, it is mainly because of the lake of social welfare for the general population, such as medical insurance and subsidized services for education. Loss of qualification for the MLGS means losing the protection against many of these risks. This is different from welfare dependency in the developed countries.