Plan would aid social security transfer

China plans to establish a system that will efficiently help with the transfer and continuation of workers' social security accounts after they change workplaces, the State Council said on Wednesday.

The social security card of China. [File photo]

The State Council approved a five-year plan to speed up the establishment of a network to cover both urban and rural residents by 2015.

There are five types of social insurance in China: basic endowment, basic medical, unemployment, work injury and maternity.

A government circular that took effect in 2010 ensures that workers can have their basic endowment insurance payments transferred and continued when they change jobs.

But experts say insufficient facilities and different software used in various workplaces have made the transfer inefficient.

Lu Xuejing, a social security expert at Beijing-based Capital University of Economics and Business, said only around 730,000 workers had their pension accounts successfully transferred by the end of 2011, though many more people than that had changed workplaces.

"So few transfers suggests that time is needed to perfect the system," she said.

Local governments are not yet well-prepared for the implementation because they do not share the same information system and software, so problems can occur when linking up accounts, Lu said.

Many places also lack sufficient skilled personnel, she said.