The executive meeting of the State Council held on November 2 announced the latest policy of reducing the social insurance rate: the existing policy originally planned to be implemented until next year - the total unemployment insurance payment ratio of employers and employees has dropped from 3% to 1% in a phased manner, and will continue to be implemented after the expiration at the end of April next year.
This is the fifth time since 2015 that the State Council has announced the policy of reducing social security rates for three consecutive years. In April this year, You Jun, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, revealed that the first four rate cutting policies had reduced the cost of enterprises by 315 billion yuan.
In August this year, the State Administration of Taxation, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and other five departments jointly held a meeting, which made it clear that from January 1, 2019, the tax authorities will uniformly collect various social insurance premiums. Among them, the work deployment of "clearing up arrears and paying off debts" has also attracted social attention.
As for the concerns of private enterprises, the State Council has made it clear for many times that it is necessary to "study the appropriate reduction of social insurance rates to ensure that the overall burden on enterprises will not be increased". This time, the introduction of the rate reduction policy is also more "urgent" because of the reform of the social security collection system.
To what extent can this new policy reduce the burden on enterprises? Does the rate reduction affect the treatment of the insured? How is the current operation of social insurance in China? A series of problems affect social nerves.
New Deal
Stable employment enterprises return 50% of unemployment insurance premiums
The executive meeting of the State Council held on November 2 was to determine targeted measures to further promote employment. The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security previously disclosed that the new urban employment in the first three quarters has completed the annual target task.
Employment requires employers to have sufficient job demand, which is largely derived from the production and operation of enterprises. The situation of enterprises naturally became the topic of concern at the executive meeting of the State Council to study "employment". indeed. The conference released a series of substantive policies for enterprises.
In order to reduce the burden on enterprises and promote the expansion of employment, the meeting decided that the current policy of reducing the total unemployment insurance contribution ratio of employers and employees from 3% to 1% in stages will continue to be implemented after the expiration at the end of April next year. More than continuing the rate reduction policy. The meeting also decided that 50% of the unemployment insurance premiums paid by enterprises and their employees could be refunded to eligible insured enterprises that strive to stabilize employment through fee reduction. For the eligible unemployed, the basic medical insurance and other expenses that should be paid by individuals should be disbursed from the unemployment insurance fund.
The reporter found that since February 2015, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and the Ministry of Finance have adjusted the unemployment insurance rate from 3% to 2%, and lowered the industrial injury insurance and maternity insurance rates to 0.75% and no more than 0.5% respectively.
Since 2015, the social insurance rate adjustment policy has involved the "four insurances" in the "five insurances", such as unemployment insurance, work-related injury insurance, maternity insurance, pension insurance, etc., and the merger of maternity insurance and basic medical insurance has also been deployed. This also means that the state has made overall adjustment to the layout of all five types of social insurance.
[Sound]
Strict collection needs to be matched with substantial reduction in rate
The call for the rate reduction came from the substantial step taken in the reform of the social security collection system in August this year.
On August 20, the State Administration of Taxation, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and other five departments jointly held a meeting, which made it clear that from January 1, 2019, the tax authorities would uniformly collect various social insurance premiums. It is clearly proposed to carefully arrange the work of "clearing up the arrears".
In fact, before that, there had been social security collection units in Guangdong, Liaoning, Jiangsu, Hubei and many other places to "clear up" enterprises. An enterprise in Hubei was required to pay 123167.52 yuan of social insurance for 17 years, plus 27668.73 yuan of late fees.
As for the possible increase of enterprise burden caused by social security collection, Zhu Junsheng, deputy director of the Insurance Research Office of the Financial Research Institute of the Development Research Center of the State Council, told the Beijing News that "the increased burden of enterprises is not only the burden of enterprises but also the burden of workers. If enterprises are overburdened, it will reduce the demand for labor and have a bad impact on the market."
Zhu Junsheng believes that if the tax authorities want to change this situation and make strict collection, they need to significantly reduce the social insurance rate.
On September 6 this year, the executive meeting of the State Council issued a voice: until the reform of social security collection institutions is in place, all localities should keep the existing collection policies unchanged, and at the same time pay close attention to the study of appropriate reduction of social security rates to ensure that the overall burden on enterprises is not increased, so as to stimulate market vitality and guide social expectations.
Effect
The overall decrease of social insurance rate is close to 10%
This new policy does not involve the substantial content of rate adjustment, but it is clear that the policy of periodic reduction of unemployment insurance rate will continue to be implemented at the end of implementation, and the deadline for continued implementation has not been announced.
In response to the problem of enterprise burden, General Secretary Xi Jinping made it clear that we should release water to raise fish and make every effort to reduce the enterprise burden. On November 1, Xi Jinping hosted a forum for private enterprises in the Great Hall of the People. At this meeting, he pointed out six directions for the next step of supporting the development and growth of private enterprises, the first of which is "reducing the tax burden of enterprises".
How much burden has the rate reduction reduced for enterprises? The head of a private enterprise with nearly 100 employees in Beijing told the reporter that after taking all the five social security premiums paid for employees into account, the total social security premiums paid by enterprises and individuals each month were about 300000 yuan. "Every reduction of one percentage point, we can save 8000 yuan of labor costs."
In April this year, You Jun, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, said that since 2015, the social insurance rate has been reduced or phased down four times, and the overall social insurance rate has been reduced from 41% to 37.25%, with an overall decrease of nearly 10%. You Jun said, "We calculated that the cumulative cost reduction of enterprises was about 315 billion yuan."
The reduction of the social insurance rate has indeed had an effect on reducing the burden on enterprises. However, according to the implementation of the first four rate reduction policies, the rate of pension insurance is still at the lowest 19%, which is the highest one among the five insurance rates. Some experts said that in order to continue to reduce the burden of enterprises, pension insurance rates should be significantly reduced.
[Follow up]
Reducing the social insurance premium rate will never affect social insurance benefits
The bill of the social security fund involves "income" and "expenditure". The reduction of the rate is "income reduction" for the social security fund pool. Is there any power to pay social security participants after income reduction? Will "income" decrease "expenditure"?
In April of this year, you Jun said at the regular policy briefing of the State Council that there are conditions in regions where the enterprise pension insurance rate is reduced periodically. The cumulative balance of the fund can be paid for more than 9 months, and the support capacity of the fund is guaranteed. "It is estimated that the pension fund rate will be reduced by 1 percentage point, and most regions will still be able to receive more than the expenditure in the current period. A few of those who cannot offset the expenditure can use the accumulated balance to adjust."
As for whether the rate reduction will affect the treatment, the official of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security said that the rate reduction will never affect the social security treatment. "The reduction of rates should not be" pushed down ". In the future, with the economic development and changes in the average wage and living cost of employees, various social security benefits will gradually increase." Jin Weigang, president of the China Academy of Labor and Social Security Sciences, said.
According to the latest figures from the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, from January to September, the total income of basic pension, work-related injury and unemployment insurance funds was 3.93 trillion yuan, up 18.2% year on year, and the total fund expenditure was 3.45 trillion yuan, up 16.5% year on year. Judging from this figure, the total income of various social insurances this year is greater than the total expenditure.
On the one hand, the rate is reduced, on the other hand, the total revenue is increasing, and the growth rate is still accelerating. Why? In fact, a series of policies to enrich social security have gradually achieved results. Lu Aihong, spokesman of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, said that as of the end of September, 15 provincial (district, municipal) governments including Beijing and Shanxi had signed investment entrustment contracts with the Council of Social Security Fund, with a total contract amount of 715 billion yuan, of which 416.65 billion yuan had been received and started to invest.
This page/Wu Wei, reporter of Beijing News
New Beijing News Cartography Chen Dongxu Xiao
Editor in charge: Li Feng
