China boosts pension benefits, elderly care services in new budget plan

China has unveiled its 2025 budget plan with emphasis on expanding elderly care services and increasing pension benefits as the country addresses its aging population.

China's 2025 central and local budget draft, released on Friday, highlights a strong focus on elderly care services and social welfare improvements. With the global population aging rapidly, the budget report underscores the need to "vigorously develop inclusive elderly care services," aiming to enhance the quality and accessibility of care for seniors.

In Jinan City, east China's Shandong Province, a local elderly care facility recently completed over 200 upgrades to improve safety and convenience for its residents.

Yuan Xuan, head of the care service company, said "In high-risk areas like bathrooms, we've installed anti-slip tiles, full handrails, and emergency call systems with buttons and pull cords. These upgrades are part of our efforts to enrich service offerings and improve service quality."

Residents have welcomed the changes. Liu Zhi, who resides in the facility, said "High-tech facilities, such as sleep monitoring systems and infrared sensors, can provide real-time alerts in emergencies, giving us peace of mind."

Similar facilities are being rapidly built across the country. In east China's Jiangsu Province, the provincial government has allocated approximately one billion yuan to support the elderly care system. Plans include establishing life experience centers for seniors within large care facilities and community service stations.

Xie Xiaojun, director of Jiangsu's Civil Affairs Department, said "We will provide professional equipment rentals and personalized elderly care plans, while continuously promoting home-based services such as cleaning, bathing, medical assistance, and mobility support. By delivering daily and urgently needed elderly care services directly to seniors' homes, we aim to create a one-stop elderly care platform right at their doorstep."

 The budget report also outlines plans to increase basic pensions for retirees and raise the national minimum basic pension for rural and urban residents by 20 yuan per month.

Additionally, education spending will grow by 6.1 percent, while social security and employment expenditures will rise by 5.9 percent.  Central government's transfer payments to local governments will exceed 10 trillion yuan, ensuring robust support for social welfare and livelihood improvements.

These measures reflect China's commitment to addressing the challenges of an aging population while enhancing the overall quality of life for the people.

China boosts pension benefits, elderly care services in new budget plan

Chinese Premier Li Qiang on Thursday presided over a State Council executive meeting that studied work on building a unified national market and reviewed and approved a plan for the development of a modern emergency response system during the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-2030).

Noting that building a unified national market is essential to advancing high-quality development, the meeting called for deepening institutional frameworks in areas such as property rights protection, market access, fair competition, social credit and market exit mechanisms.

The meeting also urged efforts to advance high-standard connectivity of market infrastructure to facilitate smooth economic circulation and effectively reduce logistics costs across society.

Emergency management is critical to protecting people's lives and property, the meeting said. It called for accelerating the development of a modern emergency response system, deepening reform and innovation in emergency management, and improving coordinated response mechanisms.

Efforts should be made to strengthen risk prevention at the source, enhance monitoring, forecasting and early warning, and accelerate a shift in governance toward proactive prevention, according to the meeting.

A draft revision of the Law on the People's Bank of China was also discussed and approved in principle at the meeting, which decided to submit the draft to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress for deliberation.

Chinese premier chairs State Council executive meeting