China is set to launch a pilot pension insurance program for the country's urban unemployed residents starting July 1.
"All unemployed urban residents over the age of 16, excluding students and people covered by the pension program for employed ones, are eligible for the pilot program," the central government said in a statement on its official website www.gov.cn.
According to the statement, the pension program's fund is made up of personal contribution and governmental subsidy. With this program, there are 10 categories for personal contributions annually, but an urban unemployed resident can choose to pay the minimum annual sum of 100 yuan (about 15.4 U.S. dollars) or the maximum 1,000 yuan per year into the pension program before reaching 60 when he starts to receive basic monthly pension payment of 55 yuan in addition to the pension payments from his personal contributions.
Those who are already 60 when the pension system was launched can still get 55 yuan each month without paying into the program, according to the statement.
The program, which would be implemented nationwide in 2012, is part of China's efforts to build a social security net covering all people, after it experimented with a similar pension program for rural citizens in 2009.
Under the rural pension system, which is still being operated on a trial basis, rural residents over the age of 60 can receive a monthly pension of at least 55 yuan.
Â
.png)
