Minimal assurance is a right, not charity
- Source: Global Times
- [01:07 January 20 2010]
- Comments
By Wu Meng
According to a recent report in the Chongqing Evening Post, unauthorized deductions are being made in the allowance payable to minimal assurance households in Jiangbei district of Chongqing.
Since last summer, the neighborhood committee has been inviting the recipients to movies that were specially screened for them. The people subsisting on the government's minimal allowance are happy because going to the cinema is a luxury for them.
However, they seem to have been assuming too much. Beginning December 2009, the neighborhood committee is going to deduct 20 yuan ($2.93) from every person's allowance every month for the movies, regardless of whether they went to the movies or not.
It is not the first case of people on minimal allowances being taken advantage of by some local authority.
It is reported that in Sanmenxia, Henan Province, in 2003, those people were once forced to buy magazines. Afraid of offending the authorities, they kept silent until their allowance was heavily cut to pay for the magazines.
Other reports reveal that many of those on minimal allowances have to do a certain amount of social work to get it, regardless of their health condition or family situation.
These people cannot support themselves financially, and the policy of subsistence allowance for the urban poor shows the society's care and concern for these people.
When they are struggling to make ends meet, a forced movie ticket as an excuse to skim money off their dues is despicable.
On the other hand, the allowance comes from the taxpayers and is paid out of the government's budget. Whoever is benefiting from a deduction does not have the right to do so without making it public first.
The basic reason for several such cases lies in the outdated system of giving out allowances. In most middle- and small-sized cities, the minimal assurance allowance is physically paid out by officials, and not through an electronic process.
This involves more time and energy, and slows down the whole process. Besides, it indirectly creates room for a power game in which the poor at the receiving end are the weaker party.
In a society where almost everything can be done electronically, enhancing the efficiency of disbursing subsistence allowances to the poor is not a difficult task.
The officials who are trying to squeeze money out of the meager allowances for the poor should take a look at themselves in the mirror: If they are in a position where they cannot support themselves financially, let alone having the power to decide when and how much to give out, would they still be so worry-free?
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