Human Resources and Social Security departments recently released data from January to April which shows that 496,850,000 urban and rural people are insured, which 650,000 people less than the number recorded at the end of the 2013. Since the establishment of this system, it is the first time the number of insured has decreased.
As the number has decreased, the State Council on February 21 of this year issued an opinion calling for the establishment of a unified nationwide basic pension insurance system for urban and rural residents (《关于建立统一的城乡居民基本养老保险制度的意见》).
In the four years since the pension insurance system was established, insurance coverage had been expanding rapidly, until recently when the numbers took a small dip. Some experts speculate this decrease recorded at the end of April this year is due to a reduction of people enrolled in multiple insurances. Hu Xiaoyi, deputy minister of the Ministry of Human Resources explains how in the past it was difficult to keep track of those who had multiple sources of insurance, but with modern technological tools, it will become easier to avoid this problem in the future. Others think that it may be that those who should be insured have been insured (应保尽保) and thus the growth of the pension insurance program has stopped.
