DESPITE rumors that China may be facing a shortage of pension funds as the country ages, Shenzhen has reported huge surplus last year.

In 2018, the total income of all social security funds, excluding medical and maternity insurance funds, was 132.23 billion yuan (US$19.23 billion), while their expenses totaled 51.9 billion yuan, resulting in a surplus of 80.33 billion yuan. By the end of 2018, the city had accumulated 528.16 billion yuan in surplus.

This was disclosed by the Shenzhen Municipal Human Resources and Social Security Bureau in the “Shenzhen Social Security Insurance Information Disclosure in 2018” published recently.

This disclosure covers the number of institutions and individuals that participated in the insurance, and also covers the financial situations of every social security fund, including their revenues, expenses and balances.

By the end of 2018, the number of companies and institutions participating in endowment insurance, unemployment insurance and workplace injury insurance were 671,400, 670,200, and 672,000, respectively. A total of 11.58 million people had participated in the basic endowment insurance as of the end of 2018.

The number of retirees covered by the basic endowment insurance for urban workers was 357,700, which represented an increase of 48,100 as compared with that at the end of 2017. The average basic monthly pension for retirees from Shenzhen enterprises reached 3,764 yuan.

Currently, the public employment service information system in Shenzhen covers 10 districts, including new districts, and 74 communities. There are approximately 1,300 social insurance-finance cooperation service points in Shenzhen, and 17 million financial social insurance cards have been issued so far.

(Chen Siqi)