以分类促进社会救助的机会公平:中国农村的经验

Promoting fairness of opportunity in social assistance by classification:Evidence of rural China

形成人人享有的合理分配格局是共同富裕的核心原则之一,社会救助作为分配格局中的重要一环,人人享有和机会公平同样是社会救助的应有之义。从分类社会救助的理念出发,分析了中国“两不愁三保障”社会救助的分类特征、其分散性以及机会公平性。研究发现:“两不愁三保障”的社会救助方式虽然涉及多个维度,但是与多维救助之间存在较大差异;各类社会救助受助群体之间存在较强的分散性;不同维度贫困之间极高的错配率,使以收入救助为基础的“两不愁三保障”难以覆盖不需要收入救助但需要其他维度救助的群体,在分类救助的视角下存在较大的覆盖不足。这也大幅降低了社会救助的机会公平性。鉴于此,应该进一步加强分类社会救助的建立,打破其他分类维度与收入维度之间的高度捆绑,以相对独立的社会救助分类提高社会救助获得的机会公平性。

Summary:Human Development Reports(2020)proposes that development is dynamic,priorities and values shift,so should metrics.The development perspective is also applied to social assistance.China has entered a stage of promoting common prosperity,and forming a reasonable distribution pattern for all is one of the core principles of common prosperity.Fairness for all is not uniform,it focuses on equality of opportunity.As an important part of the process of promoting common prosperity,social assistance must also follow the principle of opportunity fairness for all.Based on this,with the perspective of opportunity fairness,this paper analyzes the scale and dispersion of recipients of classified social assistance in rural China using multidimensional poverty theory.According to the mismatch rate among education poverty,medical poverty,housing poverty and income poverty,the paper discusses the unfair opportunities faced by social assistance.This provides a basis for improving the classified social assistance.The findings are as follows:(1)there are great scale gaps among different social assistance recipients,and there are great differences among income poverty rate,education poverty rate,medical poverty rate and housing poverty rate.From the perspective of time trend,the degree of multidimensional poverty in rural China is increasing.(2)The dimensions of rural poverty in China are relatively dispersed,the overlap rate between income poverty and other dimensions of poverty is very low,and there is a serious dislocation and insufficient coverage.In the current type of social assistance,more than 80%of poor families in education,medical care and housing are not covered.This aggravates the opportunity unfairness of social assistance of“Two Assurances and Three Guarantees”.At the same time,it also reflects that it cannot meet the needs of classified social assistance.In view of this,in the process of improving social assistance,it is necessary not only to promote opportunity fairness among different assistance classification,but also to avoid social tearing and criticism of bottom-line social assistance while improving the sense of gain,and promote the formation of a reasonable distribution pattern for all.This paper propounds relevant suggestions from the following aspects:First,break the high bundling between income assistance and other dimensions of assistance;expand the coverage of bottom-line social assistance;and promote fairness of opportunity through classified assistance.The source of bottom-line social assistance must be transfer payment,and the redistribution nature of transfer payment requires it to be reasonable and fair.There are two functions of breaking the high degree of binding and overlap between income dimensions and other dimensions.On the one hand,ensure the needs of low-middle income families which are not in income poverty in other dimensions,and avoid their urgent need of other social assistance being excluded from income poverty.On the other hand,the overlap of assistance brought by high bundling can be reduced,so as to avoid a person or a family getting various kinds of assistance.Its disposable income is higher than that of low-income families which are not poverty,which brings the distortion of redistribution and reduces its rationality and fairness.Secondly,integrate urban and rural social assistance,while strengthening the links and differences among various types of social assistance systems,and promote the establishment of various types of social assistance standards.So that various types of social assistance can be targeted according to the needs of different families or individuals,and avoid families or individuals being trapped in a certain dilemma.Thirdly,develop a team of social workers to provide effective social assistance and social services to families and individuals who are in need of assistance.The target rate of social assistance has always been an important issue faced by social assistance.Developing the team of social workers and strengthening the understanding between social workers and service clients can add a reference dimension in the process of social assistance verification,and contributes to improve the targeting rate of social assistance;at the same time,it also contributes to providing more effective social assistance for families and individuals.Fourthly,reduce the household registration isolation of bottom-line social assistance and improve the availability of bottom-line social assistance.Due to the large differences in the standards of social assistance among different administrative regions,the objects of social assistance are generally subject to household registration,forming a household registration isolation in bottom-line social assistance.However,the social assistance needs of some families and individuals mainly occur in the place of residence rather than the place of registration.But due to the restrictions of the household registration system,these families and individuals cannot obtain the needed assistance in the place of residence.Gradually change the target of bottom-line social assistance from the registered population to the permanent population,and then promote the availability of bottom-line social assistance.