What proposals will be made during the 2022 Two Sessions to increase the fertility rate?

The 2022 Two Sessions have nine major proposals for improving fertility rates.

The 2021 national population data released by the National Bureau of Statistics show that there will be 10.62 million births in 2021, with a birth rate of 7.52‰. It can be seen that in 2021, China's birth population hit a new low since 1949, and the birth rate hit the lowest level on record. The total fertility rate was only 1.15, making it one of the countries with the lowest fertility rates in the world. Therefore, this year's two sessions of the National People's Congress have many more proposals on encouraging childbirth than in previous years. Encouraging childbirth has become a hot public policy topic that cannot be delayed.

The policies to encourage childbirth involved in the two sessions include many aspects: cash and tax subsidies, house purchase subsidies, building more nurseries, providing equal maternity leave for men and women, promoting mixed offices, and protecting single women. reproductive rights, opening up of assisted reproductive technology, college entrance examination and school system reform, and many other aspects.

1. Cash and tax subsidies The high cost of childbirth has always been one of the most important negative factors affecting families of childbearing age to have second and third children, while cash and tax subsidies are a way to reduce the burden of childcare. Important measures, as the first step to encourage childbearing, are of very positive significance.

The representative suggested that both personal income tax reduction and cash subsidies should be paid equal attention to. The specific suggestions on cash subsidies are: for each child in a family with two children, a monthly cash subsidy of 1,000 yuan is provided; for each child in a family with multiple children, a monthly cash subsidy of 2,000 yuan is provided; the above payments are until The child reaches the age of 20. In terms of personal income tax reduction and exemption, we recommend that families with two children enjoy a 50% reduction in income tax and social security, while families with three children enjoy full exemption from income tax and social security (in order to avoid widening the gap between the rich and the poor, a certain cap can be set on the amount of tax reduction). upper limit).

Zheng Jianjiang, deputy to the National People's Congress and chairman of Oaks Group

It is recommended to increase the special additional deduction standard for personal income tax on children's education expenses for families with second and third children, that is, 3,000 yuan for the second child The standard deduction is per person/month, and the standard deduction for three children is 5,000 yuan/person/month.

Huang Xihua, deputy to the National People's Congress, member of the Standing Committee of the Huizhou Municipal Party Committee, and director of the Propaganda Department

It is recommended to provide childcare subsidies. For each child, from birth to the age of 6, the national finance will provide a certain amount every month. The amount of child care subsidy, the specific amount can refer to the local minimum wage standard.

Zhang Zhaoan, deputy to the National People's Congress and researcher at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences

The suggestions submitted believe that to increase the fertility rate, it is far from enough to simply raise the threshold for personal income tax, because currently paying The proportion of people subject to personal income tax is still not high. The most direct and effective method should be cash incentives. Especially for most low-income families, financial incentives are still needed to motivate women of childbearing age to have more children.

Jin Li, member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and vice president of Southern University of Science and Technology

Suggested the implementation of long-term personal tax reduction and economic subsidy policies. The cost of raising children is prohibitive for many families. Only through long-term and lasting subsidies can the willingness to have children be truly enhanced. To this end, it is recommended that families with three or more children significantly increase the personal income tax threshold, and provide monthly maternity subsidies for each child starting from the third child until the child reaches adulthood. Individual tax reduction and exemption policies and economic subsidy policies can be implemented differently according to the economic development level and fertility wishes of different regions.

Xie Wenmin, member of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and director of Hubei Shouyi Law Firm

It is recommended to improve and perfect the maternity security system. In addition to improving the maternity allowances already covered by the current social security, there should also be additional A maternity subsidy system will be added and implemented in parallel with maternity allowances.

Nie Pengju, National People’s Congress Representative and Chairman of Kelier

It is recommended that certain standards of living and medical insurance subsidies be implemented for the third child based on region, such as 20% of the local average monthly salary. Living allowances, living and medical insurance subsidies are provided until the person reaches the age of 18.

Zhou Songbo, deputy to the National People's Congress and director of Fanyang Hospital in Zhuozhou, Hebei Province

It is recommended that families with three children be provided with a monthly childcare subsidy for each child until the child is three years old.

Parents’ personal income tax and social security contributions are reduced to varying degrees. Implement differentiated economic subsidy policies and a progressive personal tax deduction policy based on the number of children.

Mu Kefa, member of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and deputy director of the Ethnic and Religious Affairs Committee of the Anhui Provincial Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference

It is recommended that the central government introduce substantive encouragement policies, such as the establishment of “encouragement” policies by the central and local governments. "Maternity Fund" to increase the rewards for the birth of second and third children.

2. Reduce housing costs. High housing prices are also an important reason that restricts couples of childbearing age from having children. The housing price-to-income ratio in China's big cities is the highest in the world. To reduce the burden of raising children in areas with high housing prices, it is necessary to implement policies that provide housing purchase subsidies to families with multiple children. Specific methods can be subsidized through mortgage interest rebates or house price discounts. For example, 50% of the mortgage interest for families with two children can be refunded, and all mortgage interest for families with three children can be subsidized and refunded. In areas with high housing prices, the cost of this subsidy can be covered by increasing the supply of housing land.

4. Provide equal maternity leave for men and women. The "maternity leave" here includes not only women's maternity leave, but also men's paternity leave and parental leave. So far, most provinces have adopted newly revised population and family planning regulations, generally extending maternity leave and adding new childcare leave. However, if women’s maternity leave is simply extended, it will inevitably lead to companies being unwilling to recruit women and allowing men to shoulder more childcare responsibilities, thereby reducing employers’ employment discrimination against women and increasing women’s willingness to have children. In order to alleviate the worries of working women having children, in addition to shouldering the labor costs during maternity leave, the government also needs to introduce a relatively equal maternity leave policy for men and women. This will help protect women’s rights and interests in employment and career development, and eliminate as many problems as possible. Gender discrimination in the workplace. In addition, through the commercial maternity insurance system, commercial insurance rather than enterprises bear the main cost of maternity leave, realizing a situation where the government, enterprises, and individuals bear the cost of childbirth.

The cost of the employer shall be appropriately shared by the state, enterprises and families, and various measures such as government subsidies and tax exemptions shall be used to appropriately share the cost of the employer.

5. Incorporate the cost of assisted reproductive technology into medical insurance In today's society, the prevalence of infertility patients is very high. Although many couples want to have children, they are faced with high medical expenses, especially the cost of assisted reproductive technology. It is very high, which discourages many couples who want to have children. In 2021, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed that the infertility rate among couples of childbearing age in my country has climbed to about 12-18. Although Beijing previously announced that 16 assisted reproductive technology projects would be included in medical insurance. But so far, most provinces across the country have not included assisted reproductive technology projects in medical insurance. We recommend encouraging and supporting the industrial development of assisted reproduction-related technologies, and including related services in medical insurance nationwide.

The Kuomintang Central Committee submitted the "Proposal on Improving the Reproductive Health of People of Childbearing Age" at this year's Two Sessions and recommended: For reproductive health and medical-related industries and technologies:

1. Increase attention , establish a multi-level prevention system

2. Encourage the research and development and promotion of advanced diagnosis and treatment technology, and implement a variety of treatment methods

3. Include treatment costs in medical insurance and build an institutional security system.

6. Protecting the Reproductive Rights of Single Women There is also a topic that has been making a lot of noise recently: whether the reproductive rights of single women should be opened up. There are different opinions between those who agree and those who are against it. Now here is the response. According to the "Standards for Human Assisted Reproduction" issued by the former Ministry of Health (Wei Ke Jiao Fa [2003] No. 176): "Human assisted reproductive technology is prohibited for couples and single women who do not comply with national population and family planning laws and regulations. "In practice, this provision prevents single women from using artificial assisted reproductive technologies such as sperm banks and frozen eggs to exercise their reproductive rights.

The representative suggested amending this provision to protect the reproductive rights of single women. Modern working women have to balance their degree, career and family, which often leads to conflicts in energy and time. Sometimes they have to postpone marriage or choose to be single.

There are many unmarried women in their 30s. Although some of them do not want to get married or do not want to get married for other reasons, there are also many who hope to have their own children and raise them independently. They also need the help of reproductive technology, such as Egg freezing and artificial insemination are used to realize the wish of having a child.

It is recommended to relax the policy restrictions on egg freezing for single women to solve the fertility difficulties caused by the substantial increase in the age of marriage and childbearing.

7. Promote flexible office models. With the maturity of remote conferencing and collaborative working software in Internet technology, remote office has become technically mature. Moreover, due to the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic, many companies have been forced to implement remote office , thus setting off a trend of remote working around the world. Amazon, Microsoft, Google and Apple have all normalized remote working models and launched different hybrid office systems. Recently, Ctrip China announced that its nearly 30,000 employees will implement a hybrid office system, allowing employees to work remotely from home every Wednesday and Friday. This is the first large company in China to launch a "3+2" hybrid work system. In the process of promoting the hybrid office model, Ctrip has achieved very good results. Not only has work efficiency not declined, but also employee satisfaction has been greatly improved. The social effects of mixed office are also obvious. It can reduce commuting congestion, and is also beneficial to environmental protection, family harmony, alleviating high housing prices and increasing fertility rate.

Huang Xihua submitted the "Suggestions on Promoting the "3 2" Hybrid Office Model": First, explore qualified enterprises and institutions to adopt the "3 2" hybrid office model. The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security organized a pilot project to actively promote the hybrid office model based on the nature of work and employment practices of enterprises and institutions, allowing employees to choose 1-2 days every Wednesday and Friday to work remotely to better balance work and family life. , improve employee happiness and satisfaction. The second is to ensure and support the implementation of the hybrid office model from the legal system level.

8. Education reform (reducing the number of papers in the college entrance examination and shortening the schooling system) In addition to the direct financial costs, Chinese parents spend almost the most money and energy on their children’s education. It is very worrying. This is also one of the main factors that suppresses the desire to have children. To alleviate the education anxiety of Chinese families, the key is to reform the education system, which requires reducing the number of students in the college entrance examination and shortening the schooling system. Nowadays, companies are recruiting more and more master's degree students, making the competition for postgraduate entrance examinations increasingly fierce. Submit suggestions to promote the reform of the nine-year compulsory education system as soon as possible, shorten the school length, cancel the high school entrance examination, make high schools universal, and implement a ten-year basic compulsory education from primary school to high school. Gan Huatian believes that it is more in line with postponing the choice of higher education and vocational education from the junior high school stage until after the completion of general high school education to avoid competition for higher education and career choices at a younger age, and wait until their minds are more mature to make choices. The natural laws of adolescent growth and development can allow more potential children to make choices that suit them. Only in this way can the involution of primary and secondary schools be completely solved institutionally and the “education anxiety” of Chinese families can be alleviated.

Please click to enter the image description

9. Other Suggestions Representative Huang Xihua (National People’s Congress representative, member of the Standing Committee of the Huizhou Municipal Party Committee, and director of the Propaganda Department) suggested that the family planning policy be fully liberalized as soon as possible. Mentioning the "three-child policy" now will give people the wrong impression that having four children is against the policy. Although there are very few couples who are willing to have four children or more, it is more in line with the development of the country to encourage children to have no limit on the number of children.

Li Jian, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and dean of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Beijing Institute of Technology, and He Dan, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and director of the China Population and Development Research Center, jointly submitted a proposal, suggesting that the corresponding laws and policies should be improved and improved. Fertility support system to effectively increase the birth rate. It is recommended that the National People's Congress enact a "Maternity Insurance Law." Wei Zhenling, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and Deputy Procurator-General of the Liuzhou City Procuratorate of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, submitted a proposal to establish a professional rights protection system for full-time family service members to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of full-time family service members.