Double Dipping Drains Chinese Pension FundsShanghai is planning to extend the retirement age to counter a practice which has drained the city's pension funds, according to Vice Mayor Hu Yanzhou. Chinese retirement age is 60 for men, and 50 or 55 for women, but many prefer to continue working. After retirement, their state pension can be supplemented by a much smaller salary, which benefits Shanghai employers. Not the city, however, which loses the social insurance payments from both employees and employers. Current plans, which may extend the retirement age to 65, will help to replenish the city's pension funds from continued social service payments. Shanghai had more than three million residents over 60 by the end of 2008, 21.6 per cent of the city population. Since then, the population of over-60's is estimated to be nearly 3 and a quarter million more. —source: China National Committee on Ageing, quoting a 2010-02-21 Shanghai Daily news item.
|