Beijing to set up care home in the city for old people whose only children have died
Children bear the brunt of costs for caring for their elderly parents in China and some childless pensioners are struggling to cope
Beijing is to set up a care home in the city for elderly people whose only children have died and who have nobody to provide for them in their old age, according to a newspaper report.
A home in the capital with about 450 beds will specifically care for this class of senior citizens, the Beijing Youth Daily reported, citing the city’s civil affairs bureau.
Old people already living in the home will stay, but in future all new arrivals will be pensioners who have lost their children, the report said.
Children are expected to be the main providers for their parents when they grow old in China and the latest initiative highlights the difficulties faced by pensioners if their only child, born under the one-child policy, dies before them.
The capital has an estimated 4,809 people aged over 70 whose only children have died and who are incapable of living in their own homes, the newspaper quoted a spokesperson for the civil affairs bureau as saying.
One widely quoted problem for ageing parents in China who have lost their children is that they are often rejected by care homes which can require somebody to stand surety for payments, in most cases a senior citizen’s offspring.
Other relatives sometimes hesitate to become a guarantor to avoid any financial risk or legal responsibility for an elderly person’s care.
Beijing is also facing a dire shortage of beds in care homes for the elderly, according to a recent study.
The Capital University of Economics and Business said there were only four bed spaces in central areas of Beijing on average for every 100 elderly people.
The civil affairs bureau is to launch a survey of the health and economic conditions facing the capital’s senior citizens before the end of the year to help plan future care, the newspaper reported.
Beijing’s city government announced earlier this month that only the extremely poor elderly would be accepted into public old people’s homes and others would be encouraged to live in private care centres.
People over 70 who have lost their only child, or who are physically disabled, will be allowed to live in public nursing homes, the Beijing Youth Daily previously reported.