The national retirement age should be extended in stages to 65 for both men and women by the year 2045, the head of a social security think tank official has suggested.
The proposal by He Ping, director of the Social Security Research Institute under the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, is the first to include a timetable for the controversial change in labour policy, which has long been debated.
It comes on the heels of a comment at the weekend by Chen Wenhui , vice-chairman of the China Insurance Regulatory Commission, who told The Beijing News that there was a huge shortfall in the national pension fund. Without giving a specific figure, Chen said the government subsidised the basic pension scheme to the tune of more than 1 trillion yuan (HK$1.22 trillion) in the past 10 years.
He Ping proposed that the policy be implemented from 2016, with a one-year increase in the retirement age every two years until it reaches 65 for everyone. At present, the retirement age is 60 for men, 55 for woman in the civil service and 50 for other working women, the Beijing Times reported, citing a forum discussion about the ageing population, held on Sunday in Beijing.
The proposal is strongly opposed by internet users. More than 95 per cent of about 4,300 people who took part in a four-question survey on Cq.qq.com, a news portal based in Chongqing , had by last night opposed extending the retirement age. Just over half of those against the plan said they feared it would make finding a job even more difficult, and 41 per cent said they wanted to be able to retire early and still claim pensions.
Last month, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security issued a statement confirming that it was reviewing options for raising the retirement age, and thereby the age at which a person could claim a pension. The ministry said it would propose such a change 'when all segments of society had reached a similar opinion'.