Shanxi will unify the pension insurance systems for rural and urban residents at the end of June in a move to let rural residents share more benefits, the province’s human resources and social security department said.

It means the payment rates, government subsidy standards and old-age pension levels for rural residents and non-working urban residents in the province will be the same.

The new policy has added two more levels to the existing tiered individual payments of pension insurance in the province, increasing the total annual individual payment to 2,000 yuan from 1,000 yuan. The threshold level for individual payments every year has been set at 100 yuan for both rural residents and non-working urban residents. The total pensionable benefits consist of the basic old-age pension supported by the government and an individual payment account.

The new policy makes it clear that the more people pay in, the more they benefit from the pension insurance in their old age.

For a long time, rural resident pension insurance standards have been lagging behind those for urban residents, and rural residents in China have been reluctant to save for their later years in their pension insurance accounts.