BEIJING, April 30 (Xinhua) -- China's top legislature on Thursday voted to adopt a law on social assistance, aimed at strengthening basic living support and providing a stronger safety net for vulnerable groups.

The law was passed after its third reading at a legislative session of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, which runs from Monday to Thursday.

The social assistance law, a foundational piece of social security legislation, provides solid legal guarantees to promote the development of high-quality social assistance and ensure that all Chinese people benefit from the country's reform and development.

"The social assistance law is essentially a systematic effort to review and bring together China's nearly 30 years of practice in the field. It consolidates a large number of scattered policy documents and regulations into a single and comprehensive legal framework," said Gao Huajun, former dean of the China Philanthropy Research Institute at Beijing Normal University.

With 78 articles in seven chapters, the law sets out general provisions, beneficiaries and types of assistance, assistance procedures, participation of social forces, supervision and safeguards, legal liabilities, and others.

The law will take effect on July 1, 2026.

BROADER COVERAGE

Building on existing categories, such as extremely impoverished individuals and households receiving minimum living allowances, the law introduces additional groups.

Households on the margins of minimum living allowance eligibility, households facing financial strain from essential and inflexible expenditures, disaster-affected individuals, and homeless persons without means of support and others are now under the umbrella.

The expansion of the recipients reflects a significant shift in the underlying philosophy of China's social assistance system, said Zhu Jianhua, professor from Zhejiang University of Technology.

"While the priority in the past was mainly ensuring basic survival, the system is now moving towards securing basic living standards, preventing risks, and supporting longer-term development," said Zhu.

In recent years, civil affairs authorities have in fact gradually expanded the scope of social assistance to cover a broader range of low-income households, according to Guan Xinping, senior scholar from Nankai University.

The law, drawing on increasingly established practices in recent years, is expected to further strengthen the social assistance system's functions and enhance its overall social impact, said Guan.

FASTER, EASIER SERVICES

The law seeks to improve the country's social assistance services and ensure that the assistance is delivered in a timely and convenient manner.

It requires county-level governments to establish a "one-stop, coordinated" system, and township governments and subdistrict offices to set up service windows to receive applications and promptly forward them for processing.

Professor Wan Guowei from the East China Normal University said the social assistance system should make it easier for low-income households to apply, adding that the law would streamline procedures, cut duplication, and enable more targeted assistance.

The law requires improvements to the social assistance statistics system to ensure information is accurate, complete, and shared across departments, and states that authorities should not require applicants to provide information that can already be verified through household economic status checks.

The law also calls for greater use of digital technology to bring social assistance services onto mobile platforms, allowing people to apply, track applications and file complaints more easily.

ENHANCED ROLE FOR SOCIAL FORCES

The law also includes a dedicated chapter on the participation of social forces in social assistance work, which experts say is highly important.

"Such actors were previously seen as a supplement to government-led efforts, but are now viewed as partners working on a more equal footing under a government-society collaboration model to strengthen social assistance," Gao said.

The law encourages and supports social forces in providing voluntary assistance and calls on charitable groups to increase their support for social assistance efforts.

It states that such efforts are entitled to relevant preferential policies.

Gao Jinghua, a scholar from China Agricultural University, said the move would help promote more diversified development of the social assistance system.

She noted that in some areas, grassroots-level staffing remains insufficient, and social actors are already involved.

"Social actors such as charities, social work service organizations and volunteer groups are likely to play a more active role in social assistance in the future," said Gao. ■