Is it difficult for elderly people with household separation to enjoy meal assistance subsidies at their doorstep? More than half of the elderly in Shanghai hope to receive "subsidies to follow others" for elderly care | Elderly | Shanghai
Similarly, for a 20 yuan community elderly care meal, 73 year old Mr. Fang can enjoy a meal assistance subsidy of 4 yuan per meal, while Mr. Huang, whose household registration is not located, is not eligible for it. For this meal allowance, Uncle Huang, who lives with his son, is arguing to move back to his old house in Huangpu. Today, the third meeting of the 16th Standing Committee of the Municipal People's Congress listened to and discussed the report of the Municipal Government on the improvement of elderly care policies and mechanisms in the city. The call for subsidies to follow the people by the elderly has attracted the attention of the Standing Committee members.
According to a special supervision survey conducted by the Municipal People's Congress, "meal assistance services" are the most important aspect of community elderly care services for the elderly. Over the years, Shanghai has continuously incorporated elderly meal assistance services into practical projects. As of the end of 2022, a total of 1608 community elderly meal assistance service venues have been built, with a daily meal supply capacity of 160000 customers. The elderly highly recognize this, but also have higher expectations, and meal assistance subsidies are recognized and settled among different districts. The survey found that some elderly people with separated households could not enjoy subsidies such as meal aid provided by the local government where their registered residence was located.
Uncle Sun, who lives in a residential area in Xuhui, has been worrying about this matter recently. There was an additional community cafeteria at his doorstep, and he and a group of old friends made plans to explore the store. They were delighted to see that they could enjoy a two meat and one vegetable combo for less than 20 yuan, and the eight milk yellow buns priced over 12 yuan were only sold for 6 yuan here. However, as elderly people in Shanghai, the purchase price is different. Uncle Qian, 64 years old, enjoys a 10% discount, Grandma Wu, 72 years old, enjoys a 85% discount, while Uncle Sun, 77 years old, cannot enjoy a discount because of his registered residence in Baoshan.
The community cafeteria was built at the doorstep, but it was blocked outside due to the separation of people and households. Why can't the pension subsidy be enjoyed at the doorstep? Many elderly people have raised the same question as Uncle Sun. According to a survey conducted by the Municipal People's Congress, more than half of the elderly people hope to receive subsidies to follow others. Representative research also found that the failure to integrate subsidy coordination not only occurs in the field of meal assistance, but also affects the occupancy rate of elderly people who move into nursing homes across districts due to the inability of institutional operators to obtain corresponding operating subsidies.
Subsidies for following people are also a key factor in overcoming obstacles in remote elderly care. Due to concerns about subsidies, many elderly people have given up their plans to retire in cities around the Yangtze River Delta. The data shows that among the elderly who participated in the questionnaire survey, 19% of the elderly with registered residence in this city have a certain willingness to provide for the aged or to take care of themselves in other places. However, at present, elderly people lack convenient and reliable channels to understand relevant information, and policies such as long-term care insurance and pension service subsidies in other places also need to be improved in terms of operational procedures, making them stuck in the "last mile".
"Pension subsidies" are a welfare that elderly people are very concerned about, and many elderly people are calculating their retirement accounts in different cities and regions. For example, the settlement policies for meal assistance subsidies vary in different districts, making it difficult for elderly people living across districts to apply for subsidies for their place of residence. For example, the current Shanghai pension service subsidy includes long-term care insurance projects. If the elderly choose to retire in other cities, it may be difficult to obtain this subsidy. "The key to solving the problem lies in establishing a mutual recognition and settlement mechanism for pension subsidies," said Jin Yinshu, a representative of the Municipal People's Congress.
It is reported that the city is currently continuously releasing a list of elderly care institutions in the Yangtze River Delta region, promoting cooperation between various districts in Shanghai and 35 cities in the three provinces, and carrying out pilot projects for extending the settlement of long-term care insurance for elderly care institutions in the Yangtze River Delta region, providing service guarantees for Shanghai's elderly people to live, rest, and care in other places. However, there are still bottlenecks in the sharing of elderly care service subsidies. "This requires establishing an information docking mechanism, exploring mutual recognition of various standards in different regions, including needs assessment, facility names, service standards, information sharing, etc., to provide institutional guarantees for customs clearance in different regions."
In the view of Zhao Yongfeng, Chairman of the Social Construction Committee of the Municipal People's Congress, the policy obstacle of "remote elderly care" must be overcome first. The Shanghai Elderly Care Service Regulations clearly require the establishment of a city level coordinated mechanism for subsidies related to elderly care services, but in practice, this mechanism has not yet been established and needs further coordination and integration. To this end, Zhao Yongfeng and other members suggest accelerating the establishment of a municipal level coordination mechanism for relevant subsidy policies, promoting the sorting out of elderly care service facility operation and elderly meal assistance subsidy lists in each district for elderly people who are separated from households, establishing mutual recognition and settlement mechanisms within and between districts, and achieving "treatment follows people".
The mutual recognition and settlement of elderly care subsidies involve connecting big data from various regions. Jiang Rui, the director of the Municipal Civil Affairs Bureau, responded at the meeting. Currently, the elderly care service subsidy applications and home environment aging friendly renovation applications of elderly people in need have been included in the "One Network Service". The next step will be to further optimize government affairs with relevant departments, optimize the function of elderly people's authorized agency, and set up functions such as elderly person agency, assistance, and door-to-door service in the "One Network Service".
