人口高速老龄化:我国社会养老服务面临严峻挑战

The Speedy Ageing Population:Severe Challenges for Social Endowment Services in China

人口高速老龄化,是我国人口老龄化不同于西方发达国家人口老龄化的重要特征。具体表现为我国老年人的规模迅速扩大、高龄老年人的比例高速上升、失能和半失能老年人数量高速膨胀以及人口老龄化步入快车道。高速老龄化的庞大老年人口以及由于计划生育政策的实施、经济与社会发展而导致的生育率下降而形成的家庭规模的日益缩小,最终导致了我国传统养老模式的终结。社会养老问题已成为摆在我国社会和政府面前亟待解决的最严峻的现实问题。尽管我国政府于2011年提出并实施了《社会养老服务体系建设规划(2011—2015)》的社会政策,目标是建立以居家为基础、社区为依托、养老机构为支撑的社会养老服务体系,但由于社会养老服务体系的建设期尚短、社会养老资金投入不足、社会养老及其配套政策落实不到位、多元化的养老主体没有形成、社会养老的服务水准有待于提高、社会养老专业人员缺乏等原因,致使社会养老服务的建设目标在短时期内无法实现。由此,时不我待的人口高速老龄化对我国的社会养老服务体系构成了日益严峻的现实挑战。

The speedy population aging in China has become a distinctive feature different from that in the Western countries. Specifically, the scale of the ageing expands rapidly. The proportion of the old rises fast. The totally disabled and half disabled old population increases hastily. And the population ageing is on the fast traffic lane. The large speedy ageing population and the small families resulting from the implementation of the one-child policy and the declining fertility due to economic and social development eventually lead to the end of traditional pension mode in China. Social endowment problem has become the most serious realistic one for the government and the whole society. Chinese government has passed and implemented some social policies, aiming at setting up a social endowment service system, which is family-based and community-backed and in- stitutions-supported. However, these objectives cannot be achieved in short term due to the short period con- struction, the inadequate social pension funds, the unfulfilled social endowment practice, the absent multiple endowment principals, the poor service quality and the shortage of social pension professionals. As a result, the rapid population aging has posed an increasing challenge for social endowment services in China.