China seeks unified pension scheme before 2020

A unified pension system ensures that migrant workers from rural regions will still enjoy basic pensions even if they become urban residents, Hu said at a press conference.

Meanwhile, migrant workers will also have the opportunity to receive retirement pensions as registered workers do, after they pay relevant monthly insurances for 15 years, according to a new rule announced on Wednesday by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and the Ministry of Finance.

Their urban-rural basic pensions and retirement pensions will become interchangeable in accordance with regulations, according to the new rule that takes effect on July 1.

Luo Baihu, a migrant worker from central China's Hunan Province, has never paid monthly pension insurance because he was worried his money would be wasted. He only pays the basic urban-rural pension insurance.

He is relieved knowing that the money he spent on buying different insurances will be interchangeable between different pension accounts.

Zhou Tianyong, a professor at the Party School of the Central Committee of Communist Party of China, said that the new rule could encourage migrant workers to change their urban-rural basic pension to a retirement pension, which carries more benefits and better guarantees at old age.

Official data showed that China's migrant workers numbered 269 million at the end of 2013.

The basic rural and urban pensions for residents, together with retirement pensions for registered workers, covered 820 million people at the end of last year, government data showed.

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