China's Social Insurance System

Which could actually be worse. If your province isn't going to enforce it until god knows when, imagine if they take a further year to bring it in and you owe a couple of years worth of payments and don't get paid for who knows how long.

I was mulling this over with the family back home last night and we agreed, if they decide to dock three months pay, I will quit and move home, contract be damned.

So? What happened at the meeting?

Well, I had to go teach the Uni Admin staff how to habla the Queens Own, but I had a little meeting before the actual meeting. The idea of making us pay a fortune was scrapped and, after the real meeting, everything was sorted. I even managed to get the office to discover that, if the Uni wants to, there are loopholes around the five-year-rule...of course there is...never encountered a rule in China that was not made, in some way or other, to be circumvented if the need arose to do so  We pay a small percentage of our salary to this income/pension thing and, if we do not go to hospoital, every single jiao will be returned to us. Like putting money into a bank-account you can't touch.

All the FTs where I work were herded into a big meeting room a couple of weeks ago. Mr New FAO translated as the two people from HR (or whatever dept) laid out the insurance plan for us. The uni will continue to pay my health and unemployment insurances as they have been doing. (Health is catastrophic; didn't know I was covered for unemployment  )

The new deal is that I pay a small percentage of a magic number (currently 4500, but will be reevaluated every July) and the uni will match the funds. Part of it goes toward health 'insurance' and part of it goes toward retirement 'insurance'. I was having difficulty with the concept. I'm ditzy and thought it was just me until my colleague, who speaks fluent Chinese, told me the word 'insurance' was actually a poor translation.

This is what I now understand: The portion of the money allocated for health coverage goes into some sort of fund that I can draw upon with a new medical debit card I've yet to be issued. I can go where ever I like for treatment, but I'd best check with the provider before getting treated to make sure they accept the card. Assuming they do, I can use the funds in the account. If I require more than I've built up, I pay cash. This is where the word 'insurance' was messing with my brain. It's really a forced savings plan for medical care and the uni matches my contribution.

The portion of the monthly fee that goes toward retirement will also be matched by the uni. If I leave my job for another job in China, this can be transferred to my new job. If I leave China, I will get back the portion I've paid in. If I retire in China, I can get the part the uni has paid in as well. I asked the question of how it would be possible for me to retire in China and no one at the table could answer it. They just assured me I would get my own money back. The guys at the table with Chinese wives thought they might possibly be able to tap into the full funds.

This is optional, but we had to take both or none. I agreed to it because at the very least the uni is giving me 84 kuai a month for medical coverage. I can use it at the pharmacy. Those folks don't know whether it is for me or my husband and we buy lotsa drugs every month. I'll worry about the 'retirement' funds in a few years.

Not sure if this is the social insurance system this thread is about, but that's what was presented to FTs here in Dongguan, Guangdong  province.

we buy lotsa drugs every month.

Good for you Ruth. An important expenditure for life in China.