What is the unemployment insurance system?

Unemployment insurance system is an important part of social security system and China's employment system, which has dual functions of ensuring life and promoting employment. From 65438 to 0986, China officially established the unemployment insurance system. Over the past 20 years, it has played an irreplaceable role in stabilizing society, rallying people's hearts, creating a good development environment, and promoting institutional reform and economic and social development. However, with the rapid development of market economy and the historical defects of China's unemployment insurance system, this system needs to be improved urgently.

First, China's current unemployment insurance system is facing the main problems

The unemployment insurance system in China was established in the mid-1980s and developed gradually. Its inherent historical limitations and rapidly developing employment environment determine its own defects and deficiencies.

1. Insufficient understanding of the unemployment insurance system. Solving the basic living security of the unemployed and promoting employment has become a major issue in the crucial stage of China's reform, and unemployment has become the focus of social attention. However, the understanding of the importance and urgency of the construction of unemployment insurance system is not in place. Unemployment insurance doesn't have obvious influence like work-related injuries, and it doesn't affect every worker like illness and death. It only involves some people who are unemployed for various reasons during the development of market economy. Unemployed people lose their job opportunities temporarily, not permanently.

Therefore, the great significance of the construction of unemployment insurance system has not really attracted the attention of the whole society, and employees in enterprises have insufficient understanding of unemployment insurance, and even deliberately delay or resist participating in unemployment insurance.

2. The coverage of unemployment insurance system is narrow. Article 2 of the current Regulations on Unemployment Insurance stipulates: "Urban enterprises and institutions and employees of urban enterprises and institutions shall pay unemployment insurance premiums in accordance with the provisions of these Regulations." Article 32 of the Regulations stipulates: "The people's governments of provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government may, according to local actual conditions, decide that these Regulations shall apply to social organizations and their full-time staff, private non-enterprise units and their employees, and urban individual industrial and commercial households and their employees within their respective administrative areas." Because this regulation is mandatory for the former and selective for the latter, from the implementation situation, there are actually different practices for the latter three types of personnel to participate in the insurance, some of them participate in the insurance, and some of them do not participate in the insurance at all, which affects the interests of some personnel. In addition, the regulations do not clearly stipulate whether government workers implement unemployment insurance. In the process of implementation, government workers generally do not participate in the insurance, which has caused some institutions to compare. In addition, laid-off workers are excluded from the scope of application of unemployment insurance. According to the current laws and policies, unemployment insurance does not apply to those employees who have lost their jobs but still maintain labor relations with enterprises, that is, "laid-off" employees, but "laid-off" employees are actually unemployed. Therefore, how to make these hidden unemployed people explicit is an important problem that must be solved in China's unemployment insurance system. At the same time, unemployed people who have never been employed are excluded from the scope of unemployment insurance. In this regulation, the unemployed are identified as those who have not been employed because of their own wishes, that is, the employed do not include the unemployed. In fact, the proportion of unemployed young people under the age of 25 in China is very high.

3. The unemployment insurance fund has a single financing channel, and the fund's bearing capacity is weak. The Regulations on Unemployment Insurance for Employees of State-owned Enterprises regards enterprises as the collection objects of insurance funds; Individuals do not bear any expenses, and enterprises pay unemployment insurance premiums at 0.6%- 1% of the total standard wages of all employees. In practice, enterprises basically pay them 1%. Because the calculation caliber is based on the standard wage, the proportion of actual wage income is very low (from the proportion determined by referring to unemployment risk, the general proportion abroad is about 3% of the total wage). Therefore, the amount of unemployment insurance premiums collected is limited, and when the fund cannot make ends meet, it has to be subsidized by local finance. With the deepening of reform, the transformation of enterprise management mechanism and the increase of the number of unemployed workers, the unemployment benefits paid have also increased greatly.

4. Unemployment insurance payment standard is low, which can't guarantee the basic life. According to the Regulations on Unemployment Insurance for Employees of State-owned Enterprises, the unemployed can enjoy unemployment benefits of 12-24 months according to the length of service. Unemployment benefits are based on the standard wages of employees before unemployment, and the amount accounts for 50%-75% of the standard wages according to different situations. However, the standard wages of employees in China only account for 50% or even lower of the total wages, so the unemployment benefits calculated from this account for only 25%-35% of the wages of unemployed people. This standard is not only far below 60% of the pre-unemployment wage income recommended by the International Labour Organization, but also below the average level of 40%-50% in developing countries.

5. The qualification examination of unemployment insurance is not strict enough, and the qualification examination lacks corresponding institutions. Although countries have different qualifications to enjoy unemployment insurance benefits, the basic conditions are the same, that is, the unemployed must be involuntarily unemployed; The unemployed must be of working age and have the ability to work; You must provide sufficient evidence to prove that you are a non-employee and take the initiative to ask for employment; Worked for some time before unemployment or had some insurance experience. However, article 14 of China's Unemployment Insurance Regulations clearly stipulates the employment period, insurance period, involuntary unemployment, employment department registration and subjective employment desire, but there is no requirement for legal working age and working ability, which leads to the obvious loss of unemployment insurance funds in China, mainly because the qualification conditions for unemployment examination are not strict enough. The object of the unemployment insurance system is the unemployed, but its main purpose is to promote employment by ensuring the basic livelihood of the unemployed. Therefore, compared with other social insurance, its qualifications should be more strictly restricted, stipulating that re-employed people should stop receiving unemployment insurance benefits and cannot continue to enjoy unemployment insurance benefits. However, in reality, due to the lack of corresponding qualification examination institutions, some people can often receive unemployment insurance benefits while earning employment income.

6. Unemployment insurance management level is relatively backward. Judging from the current operation of China's unemployment insurance fund, the ability to maintain and increase value is poor. There are also many unreasonable phenomena in unemployment insurance benefits's distribution, and mutual assistance is poor. In addition, the supervision mechanism of unemployment insurance has not been effectively established. The unemployment insurance system from the central government to the local government lacks both actual supervision institutions and detailed rules for supervision and punishment, and the phenomenon of misappropriation and misappropriation of unemployment insurance funds occurs from time to time. The relative lag of unemployment insurance management level is also reflected in the lag of unemployment insurance informatization construction. Because many important data such as laid-off workers, unemployed people, insurance standards and so on are inaccurate, the statistical means are backward, and the information level of management means is distorted, which also makes the information handled by unemployment insurance management wrong and hinders the effectiveness of unemployment insurance management.

7. China's unemployment insurance legislation is at a low level, lacking high legal effect and relatively perfect legal responsibility. The Unemployment Insurance Ordinance is only an administrative regulation promulgated by the State Council, which has not yet reached the legislative level of the National People's Congress or the Standing Committee. It is only the basic norm of the implementation of the unemployment insurance system, not the basic law of unemployment insurance, which undoubtedly affects its legal effect. In countries that choose compulsory unemployment insurance mode abroad, the level of unemployment insurance legislation is the highest form of national legislation, such as Japan's Employment Insurance Law and Germany's Employment Promotion Law, which are determined by the highest national legislation. Because the Unemployment Insurance Ordinance is not the highest form of legislation, it is not conducive to the investigation of illegal acts, making the compulsory unemployment insurance system become the actual voluntary unemployment insurance.

Second, the countermeasures to improve China's unemployment insurance system

1. Increase publicity. To reform China's unemployment insurance system, we must first intensify propaganda, so that the whole society attaches great importance to the unemployment insurance system ideologically, and publicize the unemployment insurance system through various channels such as policy guidance education, media propaganda and public opinion supervision, so that people can establish the concept of unemployment insurance and enhance the unemployment insurance awareness of enterprises and individuals.

2. Expand the coverage of the unemployment insurance system. (1) The scope of application of the Unemployment Insurance Regulations should be further expanded, and it is best to unify the whole country to include all urban workers at risk of unemployment. This can avoid the differences in the scope of application and objects, which is conducive to the healthy development of this system on the track of standardization and institutionalization and safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of the broad masses of workers. (2) Incorporate laid-off workers from state-owned enterprises into unemployment insurance coverage.

3. Establish corresponding qualification examination institutions and strictly examine the qualifications of unemployment insurance. The qualification conditions of unemployment audit in China are not strict enough, and there is a lack of audit institutions with corresponding qualifications. Therefore, it is suggested that when the Regulations are revised, the clause of "legal working age and working ability" should be added to Article 14 of the Regulations, so that the conditions of unemployment insurance benefits in China are in line with international standards, and those workers who have no working ability, have not reached the legal working age and meet other conditions are blocked from receiving unemployment insurance benefits in the system design. At the same time, we should clearly define "employment" and "unemployment", set up a special unemployment insurance qualification examination institution, urge the unemployed to enter the unemployment security system as soon as possible, and ensure the safe and benign operation of the unemployment insurance fund by applying for employment and withdrawing from the unemployment security system.

At present, there is no clear distinction between unemployment and employment in China. There are two main criteria for dividing unemployment and employment in western countries: one is working hours, and the other is the level of work income. Therefore, we can think that the unemployed can be regarded as employed people if they engage in some legal economic activities and get corresponding income, and their income reaches the legal minimum wage standard, thus distinguishing them from employed people in theory and practice. On this basis, a special qualification examination institution is set up to strictly control, unemployment declaration is supplemented by employment declaration, and a dual declaration system of unemployment and employment is implemented. unemployment insurance benefits is linked to various employment activities. On the one hand, this can make the payment of unemployment insurance benefits be implemented, on the other hand, it can also solve the loss of unemployment insurance benefits caused by "hidden unemployment".

4. Raise unemployment insurance funds through multiple channels. Judging from the current situation, it is difficult to maintain the widening gap between income and expenditure of unemployment insurance only by increasing the input of the state finance. In view of the serious arrears of unemployment insurance premiums in most urban enterprises in China, we can collect unemployment insurance premiums by combining taxes and fees, broaden the scope of collection of unemployment insurance premiums, and include some urban and rural hidden unemployed people in the scope of raising unemployment insurance funds. At the same time, it is necessary to extensively open up channels for raising unemployment insurance funds, such as encouraging individuals and units to invest, attracting investment through the efficient operation of unemployment insurance funds, and conducting public welfare activities to attract investment.

5. Standardize and improve the unemployment insurance management system. (1) Strengthen the management of unemployment insurance funds. The unemployment insurance fund management committees set up by finance, auditing, planning, labor and trade unions in various provinces and cities should strengthen the supervision over fund raising, use and management, strictly examine and approve the annual budget and year-end final accounts of the unemployment insurance fund, incorporate the use of the unemployment insurance fund into the national financial inspection and audit, and accept the supervision of the finance and auditing departments for special purposes. Both the original reserve and the value-added part should be used for unemployment insurance. (2) Strengthen the management of unemployment insurance institutions. Unemployment insurance is an important part of social insurance, which should be changed from system and management organization to a unified unemployment insurance system. In view of the problems existing in China's current unemployment insurance system, such as poor management system and multiple policies, we should reasonably determine the responsibilities and powers of relevant departments, solve the problems of separation of government from enterprises, multiple policies and wrangling, and gradually realize that the government does not directly handle unemployment insurance, but establishes a special non-profit social unemployment insurance institution to ensure the relative independence of unemployment insurance management and operation.

6. Strengthen the legal construction of unemployment insurance, and gradually establish and improve the unemployment insurance system. As an important part of the compulsory social insurance system, the unemployment insurance system should be based on the legal system. It is suggested that the National People's Congress or the Standing Committee should enact the Unemployment Insurance Law as the basic law of unemployment insurance as soon as possible. At the same time, the State Council should enact a series of corresponding laws and re-enact the Regulations on the Management of Unemployment Insurance Funds and the Regulations on Statistics and Auditing of Unemployment Insurance on the basis of the existing Provisional Regulations on the Collection and Payment of Social Insurance Fees.

Third, establish an employment security mechanism to further promote the development of the unemployment insurance system.

Reforming and perfecting the unemployment insurance system in China requires arduous efforts and various reforms. However, to fundamentally improve China's unemployment insurance system, we must establish a matching employment security mechanism, which can fundamentally solve the problem and further promote the smooth development of the unemployment insurance system.

1. Highlight employment orientation. The key to establishing unemployment insurance system is to promote re-employment. The government should highlight the employment orientation in the process of unemployment insurance reform and the positive role and significance of employment in publicity. In the process of economic restructuring in China, a large number of people have changed jobs, which to some extent constitutes the real unemployed population. A key problem in adjusting the reemployment of unemployed people is to solve their conceptual problems, guide them to establish employment values that meet the needs of market employment mode, realize the objectivity of unemployment under market economy, and establish a model of "learning-employment-re-learning-reemployment" to form a virtuous circle system in the whole society.

2. Establish an unemployment early warning system. When reforming and perfecting the unemployment insurance system, we are based on the premise of recognizing the objective unemployment phenomenon under the conditions of market economy. However, the establishment of unemployment insurance system also needs to control the unemployment rate within an appropriate level to ensure the smooth progress of unemployment insurance. The purpose of establishing an unemployment early warning system is to monitor the unemployment situation and take timely countermeasures to control the unemployment rate below a safe level. Specifically, the unemployment early warning system is to control the unemployment level through the establishment of unemployment control objectives, the establishment of unemployment system and the formulation and implementation of unemployment control countermeasures. The establishment of unemployment early warning system is an important part of the establishment of employment security mechanism, which is helpful to the adjustment and implementation of employment policy.

3. Build a job creation system. In addition to providing appropriate preventive measures in advance, the employment insurance mechanism should also have the function of remedy afterwards. Once unemployment happens, we must face up to this fact, especially friction unemployment is a fact that we may face at any time, so the employment opportunity creation system is very important. Specifically, measures such as introducing preferential policies for re-employment, expanding employment forms, opening up new employment channels and increasing investment in re-employment projects will promote the construction of employment opportunity creation system.

4. Strengthen the construction of employment information network. Whether the employment security mechanism can improve the unemployment insurance system is a key factor. Constructing an efficient employment information network can provide information about unemployed people and job vacancies more quickly, newer and more comprehensively, and the contradiction between unemployment and job vacancies is the root cause of friction unemployment. Therefore, the construction of employment information network is helpful to solve the problem of friction unemployment. Especially in the process of labor globalization, making maximum use of communication and electronic technology to build an employment information network will help the cross-market, cross-regional and cross-industry flow of labor, thus optimizing the allocation of human resources in a larger scope, providing more and more suitable labor opportunities for workers, increasing the possibility of getting employment as soon as possible and solving the dilemma of unemployment insurance system.

In short, in the construction of China's market economy, we must combine the active employment security mechanism with the improvement of the unemployment insurance system, and establish a complete unemployment insurance system through the joint efforts of the state, enterprises and individuals, which will play a greater role in ensuring social stability, deepening the reform of state-owned enterprises and promoting the rapid development of social economy.

Further reading: How to buy insurance, which is good, and teach you how to avoid these "pits" of insurance.