Enhanced civil affairs work contributes to building moderately prosperous society in all respects: official

BEIJING, Sept. 17 (Xinhua) -- China has made progress in enhancing civil affairs work since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2012, laying a solid foundation for building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, a civil affair official said Friday.

By the end of 2020, over 19 million poor people were covered by the subsistence allowance system or the relief and support system for people in extreme difficulties to help ensure poverty alleviation, said Li Jiheng, minister of civil affairs, at a press conference.

Efforts were also made to strengthen the security network to ensure basic living standards for people with difficulties. By the end of 2020, over 44 million people were covered by the urban and rural subsistence allowance system, with the average allowance standards increasing by 105 percent and 188 percent, respectively, over 2012, Li said.

In 2020, temporary assistance was provided to about 13.8 million people, he added.

A classified security system for children in difficulty was established to help orphans, disabled and left-behind children, Li said, noting that over 250,000 de facto unattended children have been included by the country's security system for the first time since 2020.

By the end of 2020, a total of over 12.14 million and 14.75 million people with disabilities benefited from the living allowance system for the disabled with difficulties and the nursing care subsidy system for the severely disabled, which were established in 2016, Li said.

He noted that timely assistance was also provided for people affected by the epidemic and natural disasters.