More money for loss of a child

The government will more than triple the minimum compensation given to some parents if their only child dies starting next Wednesday, China's health and family planning agency said Thursday.

Childless parents are one of the consequences of the one-child policy, which has cut the nation's population by about 400 million since 1980. The government will ease the single-child policy as early as the first quarter of next year, allowing couples with either spouse from a single-child family to have two children.

Chinese people traditionally turn to their children to support them in old age so when an only child dies, elderly parents can find themselves in dire straits.

From next year, couples in cities who have lost their only child and in which the woman is 49 or older will get 340 yuan (US$56) per parent a month, according to a statement on the official website of the National Health and Family Planning Commission (www.nhfpc.gov.cn).

Couples in rural areas will get 170 yuan per parent a month.

Parents in urban and rural areas whose only children become disabled will receive a monthly allowance of 270 yuan and 150 yuan, respectively, the statement said.

China launched the assistance system in 2008 to aid families whose only children had died or become disabled, with subsidies for each parent of no less than 100 yuan and 80 yuan, respectively, Wang Haidong, a senior commission official, told Xinhua news agency.

It was increased in 2012 to 135 yuan for parents whose children had died and 110 yuan for those whose children had become disabled, the official said.

Wang said a survey conducted last year in 15 Chinese provincial areas revealed that despite assistance measures, bereaved families said they still suffered difficulties.

About 80 percent worried about their elderly care, Wang said.

Wang said the assistance program covered 671,000 people this year, including 407,000 whose only children died.

In Shanghai, payments were raised this year.

The monthly subsidy went up from 120 yuan per person to 400 yuan for parents whose only child is disabled. The monthly subsidy for parents who lost their child rose from 150 yuan to 500 yuan.

Under family planning rules, each spouse of a family losing their only child below the age of 16 can get a 5,000 yuan one-time subsidy and 3,000 yuan if the child is disabled in an accident.

The city government also said it was offering support for adoption and social welfare to such families. They will be given preferential elderly care, easy access to doctors, and guidance if they plan to have another baby.

Official figures showed that there are some 7,000 families in the city who have lost their only child. But that figure only includes couples who have applied for subsidies.

According to a study by Shanghai Women's Federation and Fudan University, there were around 39,000 families who had lost their only child by 2012. Among them, 24,000, or 60 percent, were couples over 50 and about 8,000 families, or 20 percent, were in their 40s.