The county screened the uninsured, and the community phone called: the old-age insurance “data searcher” entered the population.

A Chinese video-maker who claims to be not a member of pension insurance reported on 10 October on recent calls received from community workers. The caller said that the district had systematically screened uninsured persons and then handed over the list to the community, where staff members were contacted to mobilize contributions. The blogger thought he had received a fraudulent phone call. Two days later, account number X, “Sereate Li is not your teacher”, forwarded this narrative. (a) The county in which the telephone was held and the information system used, the original video did not provide a complete record sufficiently definite; However, the statements of grass-roots staff who contacted uninsured persons on the list have been directly linked to the expansion that was promoted during the same period with the Chinese Social Service.

At the press conference of the State Council's press office on 10 October, Vice-Minister Li Zhong announced that, as of the end of September, China's basic pension insurance coverage had reached 1,079 million people and included “data search” as one of the ways to promote expansion. The social welfare sector, which in the past required the population to take the initiative to participate in the insurance, now has a policy statement that places greater emphasis on the use of administrative data to identify those who have not yet entered the insurance system and then to mobilize policies and contributions to individuals. For those who received telephone calls, macrostatistical targets became a specific call in daily life.

From the data list to the community phone

The county system can identify a person who is not insured, indicating that the relevant department has linked the individual ' s identity to the state of participation. The community is on the list, which means that the result of this identification goes into the grass-roots work process. The organizers did not state that they had received compulsory payment notifications or disclose that they were penalized for refusing to take part in the insurance. Of real note is the change in the way administration is managed: those who do not participate in a social security scheme are no longer just those figures not covered by the statistical tables, but are the subject of voluntary contacts by the grass-roots staff. Even if the call content is a policy advocacy exercise, it changes the starting point for policy implementation.

This management approach particularly touches on flexible employment. Article 10 of the Social Insurance Law of China stipulates that employees of the useful person ' s unit participate in basic pension insurance in accordance with the law and that the unit shall contribute to the pension jointly with the individual; Self-employed self-employed workers, part-time workers and other flexible workers who are not insured at their place of employment are entitled to basic old-age insurance. Pension insurance for urban and rural residents is organized in a different system and contribution period. Identifying uninsured persons does not automatically create the same mandatory contribution obligation. Employment relations, the application of insurance and contribution rules are key distinctions in determining the actual responsibility of individuals.

Information filtering is easier to implement than income improvement

For the local social security sector, the database can list those who are not insured, but it cannot explain the precariousness of their income, whether there are costs to be borne by employers, whether they have previously been paid across the border, or whether the individual is able to sustain the expenditure. For people whose monthly wages are irregular and who live in casual work, the first step in joining pension insurance is a current cash expenditure, while the future guarantee depends on a multi-year, continuous contribution. The administrative costs of mobilizing participation can be reduced by data connection, but the economic pressure on the population to pay contributions does not automatically decrease.

The Ministry of Human Welfare has proposed, during the same period, the improvement of the insurance system for workers in new forms of employment and the rational sharing of the responsibility for financing. This policy direction differs substantially from a simple increase in the number of participants: the former relates to the real distribution of costs between the platform, the employer and the worker, while the latter can be directly reflected in the new record of participation at the grass-roots level. A county can screen out lists and call calls faster, but this does not change the amount of money a person with a precarious income would have to pay for his/her living expenses.

A community call in the case shows two speeds of expansion of social security in China: the administrative system is increasingly able to identify the population, while income stability and sharing mechanisms for flexible employment still depend on specific employment relationships. For those who have already borne housing, medical care and daily expenses, participation is not a space in the system that is not filled, but a family budget that must be paid year after year.