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Abstract Aging population is more vulnerable to the risk of poverty. In the context of population aging, based on the poverty characteristics of aging population to carry out anti-poverty management is one of the important reform aspect of the government’s public policies. Through international comparative analysis, the poverty of the world’s aging population can be characterized by six major differences:
(1) Significant ″regional″ difference: the poverty rate of aging population in different countries is significantly different. This is influenced by three factors: the development level of macro economy, the fairness of income distribution and the completeness of the public pension system. (2) Significant ″gender″ difference: the poverty rate of the female aging population is higher than that of the male. Since women account for the main part of the aging population, the poverty of the world aging population is mainly the poverty problem of women, which is called ″feminization of poverty.″ (3) Significant ″age″ difference: the poverty rate of the ″older old″ is higher than that of the ″younger old.″ The present trend that the aging population itself is aging will further exacerbate the seriousness of the aging population’s anti-poverty problem. (4) Significant ″family structure″ difference: the poverty rate of the ″single″ age population is higher than that of the ″couple″. In recent years the number of the single elderly households is increasing, and the single aging population is mainly made up by women whose poverty rate is higher than men, all these factors will further exacerbate the seriousness of the aging population’s anti-poverty problem. (5) Possible ″race″ difference: the poverty rate may be different among different ethnic groups especially in multi-ethnic countries. (6) Possible ″urban and rural″ difference: in the countries with urban-rural dual economic structure, the aging population’s poverty rate in rural areas will be higher than that in the cities.
Based on the analysis of the difference characteristics of global aging population, public policies to reduce the poverty rate of the aging population mainly include:
(1) To provide a ″social safety net″ to the aging population through the public pension schemes: to further expand the coverage of ″contributory schemes″ to provide income security for more senior retirees; to construct ″non-contributory schemes″ in order to build the ″social safety net″ for the vulnerable old age groups, such as the female, the older old, the single, the rural aging population etc.
(2) To delay retirement age in order to maintain the financial sustainability of the public pension system, in the meanwhile to enhance the pension income security for the retirees to reduce the risk of aging poverty.
(3) To optimize the mechanism design of pension system based on the perspective of ″gender equity″: to provide exemption for scheme women who have career interruptions due to childbirth and child care in the pension scheme; to implement the gender equalization of the statutory retirement age and raise women’s statutory retirement age; to establish ″derived pension rights″ including the ″survivor’s pension″ and ″divorcee’s pension″ etc.
(4) To achieve the ″availability″ of universal health care: the aging population can have access to quality health services at affordable price which could reduce the risk of the increase of the poverty due to illness.
(5) To enhance the quality of employment and reduce the ″informal employment″: to support the transformation of the informal sectors to the formal sectors; to help women and other vulnerable groups to realize the conversion from informal employment to formal employment through the labor market policies.
(6) To implement ″inclusive growth″ macro-economic strategy, and to promote the social equity continuously.
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