Latest news with #socialwelfare
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
China Social Spending Hits Highest Level in Nearly 2 Decades
(Bloomberg) -- China's government spending has pivoted toward social welfare to a degree unseen for at least a generation, as it runs a record budget deficit with a focus on boosting consumption to cushion the blow from Donald Trump's tariffs. Budapest's Most Historic Site Gets a Controversial Rebuild San Francisco in Talks With Vanderbilt for Downtown Campus Can This Bridge Ease the Troubled US-Canadian Relationship? Trump Administration Sues NYC Over Sanctuary City Policy The latest evidence arrived on Monday, when China announced it will start offering nationwide cash handouts to families as an incentive for couples to have children. While Beijing is channeling less on-budget investment into infrastructure, expenditure that covers outlays ranging from education to employment and social security climbed to nearly 5.7 trillion yuan ($795 billion) in the first half — the highest for the period since the data series began in 2007. That represents an increase of 6.4% from a year earlier, according to Bloomberg calculations based on figures published by the Ministry of Finance. Authorities could renew their pledge to prioritize support for domestic demand, as top officials prepare to meet this month to set the economic agenda for the rest of the year while trade talks with Washington continue. The splurge was almost double the increase in total spending under the general public budget, the first and biggest account among the government's four fiscal books. Infrastructure-related expenditure in the account — allocated for costs such as environmental protection, irrigation facilities and transportation — was 4.5% less than a year earlier. Fiscal priorities have shifted after the trade war unleashed by Trump threatened China with millions of job losses and put pressure on its patchy social safety net. Under the new policy of childcare subsidies, the government will spend 3,600 yuan a year per kid under the age of three, according to the official Xinhua News Agency. Citigroup Inc. estimates a total lump-sum payout of 117 billion yuan in the second half of 2025, while Morgan Stanley puts the program's annual cost at 100 billion yuan, assuming about 9 million births a year. Although President Xi Jinping has in the past resisted large-scale handouts to families over what he's called 'welfarism,' China responded in recent months by ramping up government support for households. The goal is partly to bolster domestic demand in the face of US tariffs, which have sent the country's shipments to the world's biggest consumer market slumping this year. 'Better supporting people's well-being will help boost domestic demand and is part of the rebalancing of the Chinese economy,' said Tommy Xie, head of Asia macro research at Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp. At the same time, China launched construction of a 1.2 trillion yuan mega-dam in Tibet this month, a massive project that will likely take years to complete. 'The room for infrastructure expansion in the future will shrink marginally' even though it can play a 'supporting role at critical times,' OCBC's Xie said. Social security and employment saw the biggest gain in spending related to people's well-being, up almost 8% in the first half from a year earlier. A survey carried out by China's central bank showed an employment sentiment index hit a record low in the second quarter, illustrating the need for more government aid for job seekers. Outlays on education increased 5.9% and rose 4% on medical treatment and health care. Meanwhile local governments' tapping of the annual quota of new bonds meant mainly for infrastructure investment slowed. Provinces have issued about 56% of new special local bonds allowed for this year, down from an average of 61% for January-July in the five years through 2024, according to Bloomberg calculations based on MOF numbers. Previously, the favored way to jumpstart growth was by spending on areas like roads, railways or industrial parks, much of it done by provincial governments. Instead, the government has accelerated the issuance of sovereign notes this year, primarily to cover the budget shortfall for routine public expenditure. Chinese provinces also sold substantial volumes of bonds in the first seven months to refinance their so-called hidden debt, as Beijing seeks to contain credit risks from deteriorating local finances. What Bloomberg Economics Says... 'An uneven consumption recovery in the first half highlights a key risk for China's growth outlook: a sustained improvement in domestic demand may require time to take hold. The experience from 1998–2003 suggests that even with strong policy support, lasting gains in consumer spending can be slow to emerge — with false starts along the way.' — David Qu and Chang Shu. For full analysis, click here Government borrowing was crucial for replenishing state coffers depleted by China's years-long property slump. Revenue from real estate-related taxes, including deeds and urban land use, fell 5.6% on year in the first half to 975.3 billion yuan. Provinces earned 1.43 trillion yuan in the period from selling land, a contraction of 6.5% despite a rebound of over 20% in June thanks to market recovery in some big cities. Economists at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. cautioned, however, on 'the sustainability of land sales revenue improvement' and maintained their forecast that government land sales revenue may decline further this year by up to 10%. Total tax revenue shrank 1.2% on year in the first half to 9.29 trillion yuan, with income from levies on such transactions as vehicle purchases posting double-digit declines. Non-tax revenue — which includes compensation for the use of state-controlled resources and assets and fines — rose 3.7% to 2.27 trillion yuan. It grew despite a decline in the money collected from fines, a Finance Ministry official said at a Friday briefing. Revenue from the tax on vehicle purchases plunged 19.1% in January-June from a year ago, the biggest drop among all categories and more than triple its decline in the same period of 2024. Slumping income from the vehicle purchase tax shows the impact of the government's decision to extend the suspension of a levy on buying new energy vehicles, such as electric cars, to 2027, Huachuang Securities analysts including Zhang Yu wrote in a note on Friday. The shift away from fuel-powered cars also weighed on revenue from the consumption tax by reducing demand for gasoline and diesel, they said. The government is losing a total of 265 billion yuan per year in revenues from the vehicle purchase tax and the consumption levy due to the pivot to cars powered by alternative-energy sources, Huachuang Securities estimates. (Updates with detail on government bond issuance this year.) Burning Man Is Burning Through Cash It's Not Just Tokyo and Kyoto: Tourists Descend on Rural Japan Cage-Free Eggs Are Booming in the US, Despite Cost and Trump's Efforts Everyone Loves to Hate Wind Power. Scotland Found a Way to Make It Pay Off Elon Musk's Empire Is Creaking Under the Strain of Elon Musk ©2025 Bloomberg L.P. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Bloomberg
3 days ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
China's Social Spending Hits Highest Level in Nearly Two Decades
China's government spending has pivoted toward social welfare to a degree unseen for at least a generation, as it runs a record budget deficit with a focus on boosting consumption to cushion the blow from Donald Trump's tariffs. The latest evidence arrived on Monday, when China announced it will start offering nationwide cash handouts to families as an incentive for couples to have children. While Beijing is channeling less on-budget investment into infrastructure, expenditure that covers outlays ranging from education to employment and social security climbed to nearly 5.7 trillion yuan ($795 billion) in the first half — the highest for the period since the data series began in 2007.
Malay Mail
24-07-2025
- Business
- Malay Mail
SARA RM100: Shifting the window for welfare — Derek Kok
JULY 24 — Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim announced yesterday a one-off RM100 cash aid for all adult Malaysians as a gesture of appreciation in conjunction with National Day to ease cost-of-living pressures. Much has been said about the limitations of this scheme, such as the small value of the cash aid and the existing spending restrictions imposed on the SARA (Sumbangan Asas Rahmah) scheme. Critics dismiss the amount as trivial; a populist drop in the ocean of rising living costs. Supporters hail it as timely relief. Both perspectives, however, miss the policy's potential significance. This scheme represents a potential policy 'trial balloon' for a fundamental shift in Malaysia's approach to social welfare that could pave the way for a more comprehensive social safety net. As stated by the prime minister himself, it is the 'first time in history that cash aid is extended to all adult Malaysians'. The universal nature of this aid can potentially shift the Overton window — the range of ideas the public is willing to consider and accept — on social protection in Malaysia. For decades, the national conversation on welfare has been confined to narrow, often divisive, frameworks of poverty-targeting and ethnic-based redistribution. Recipients of the SARA (Sumbangan Asas Rahmah) buying necessities during a Bernama photo survey at a supermarket in Kuala Terengganu, July 23, 2025. — Bernama pic By introducing a small-scale, universal benefit, the government can normalise a new principle: social support as a right of citizenship, not just a provision for the poor. The country's welfare architecture has been defined by a succession of means-tested cash transfer programs, evolving from Bantuan Rakyat 1Malaysia (BR1M) to Bantuan Sara Hidup (BSH) and, more recently, the targeted versions of Sumbangan Tunai Rahmah (STR) and the original SARA. These programmes were designed with the stated goal of channelling aid to low-income households, identified through income thresholds and databases like eKasih, which lists poor and hardcore poor families. The logic of these programmes has been to identify the 'deserving poor' through complex, and often flawed, means-testing. This model, while well-intentioned, has created a system that is fragmented, inefficient, and often fails to reach those most in need due to exclusion errors. It fosters stigma by dividing citizens into givers (the M40 middle class) and takers (the poorest bottom 40 per cent of the population). While concepts like a universal social protection floor or a UBI (universal basic income) have been discussed within academic and think tank circles, they have remained firmly outside the window of mainstream political viability and are often dismissed as fiscally profligate or politically unworkable. The national debate has been stuck in this polarised loop, with little room for alternative paradigms. Anwar's 'SARA Untuk Semua' initiative could pave the way for another paradigm to emerge from this deadlock. For the first time in our history, a social benefit is being extended to all adult citizens not because of their income, their ethnicity, or their level of need, but simply on the basis of their citizenship. This is a profound philosophical shift. It reframes social protection from a charitable handout for the unfortunate to a universal right and a collective investment in our national resilience. Its small, one-off, and controlled nature makes it a low-risk experiment, designed to normalise the principle that every citizen has a direct stake in the nation's social safety net. The built-in conditionality of the SARA scheme, whereby recipients were only permitted to use the aid to purchase a select list of groceries which excludes fresh produce, could also act as a soft launch for more universal modalities in government aid. In a political environment long accustomed to welfare models based on means-testing and conditionality, a purely unconditional universal grant might be dismissed as radical or fiscally irresponsible. By wrapping the novel concept of universality in the familiar language of control ('for essentials only'), the idea of universal programmes becomes more palatable. It appears less like a revolutionary departure and more like a sensible, controlled extension of existing principles. This approach serves to gently nudge the concept of universal aid into the Overton window, disarming potential critics by using the very lexicon of the old, targeted system to introduce a new, universal one. This move is made even more potent by its connection to another politically challenging reform: the rationalisation of blanket subsidies. For years, the removal of blanket subsidies for items like fuel has been politically perilous due to expected public backlash. Simultaneously, universal cash aid has been seen as too costly. By packaging them together, the government can create a new, more compelling policy proposition: 'We will replace inefficient, regressive subsidies that disproportionately benefit the wealthy with efficient, progressive, universal cash aid that benefits everyone'. In this construction, the universal cash aid acts as the direct, visible compensation that makes the pain of subsidy removal politically survivable. This manoeuvre attempts to shift the Overton window for both policies at once. It makes subsidy reform more 'acceptable' by cushioning its impact on the public, and it makes universal cash aid more 'sensible' by presenting a clear, fiscally responsible funding source through the savings from abolished subsidies. This represents a sophisticated political strategy to break the long-standing inertia on two critical areas of national reform. RM100 will not solve poverty. But to belabour the amount is to miss the point. This is a down payment on a different future. It is a pilot programme for a new way of thinking, a test case for a social philosophy rooted in solidarity, citizenship, and shared prosperity. The challenge now is to build on this foundation. We must move the conversation beyond the amount and focus on the principle. This RM100 has nudged ajar the Overton window of political possibility. It is now up to policymakers, civil society, and the public to push that window wide open and have a serious, mature conversation about building a comprehensive, universal social safety net that ensures no Malaysian is left behind. This small handout is not the destination — it is the start of the journey. * Derek Kok is Senior Research Analyst at the Jeffrey Cheah Institute on Southeast Asia, Sunway University. His research focuses on social protection policies. ** This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail.
South China Morning Post
14-07-2025
- Health
- South China Morning Post
Hong Kong urged to expand carer support scheme for low-income, vulnerable groups
A Hong Kong pilot scheme to identify hidden cases of at-risk carers should be expanded to cover low-income families and subdivided flat tenants with more timely follow-up, a social worker and a district councillor have urged, as a new database to address the issue began operation. The first action of the government's scheme, which began at 9am on Monday, would involve the Hospital Authority sending daily alerts to the Social Welfare Department on whether any carer from the 8,000 to 9,000 households listed in the database had been hospitalised. The department would then follow up on the situation of the elderly or disabled person being cared for and provide services such as meal deliveries or respite services. The scheme was set up after a series of tragedies in the city amid an increasing burden placed on carers' shoulders, with most cases involving single elderly people living alone and elderly couples taking care of each other. Social worker Crystal Yuen Shuk-yan cited concerns about possible time lags and questioned whether the alerts from the Hospital Authority to the Social Welfare Department would be prompt enough. 'If a carer was hospitalised during the day but authorities only receive an alert the next morning, wouldn't it be a long period of time where their dependents do not receive food or care?' she said on a radio show on Monday.
Malay Mail
12-07-2025
- Health
- Malay Mail
‘Trust is the first phase': Man living on streets for 30 years among 17 helped in Kuching night raid to tackle hidden homelessness
KUCHING, July 12 — An integrated night operation involving 12 agencies led to the identification of 17 homeless individuals around Kuching early this morning, as part of efforts to provide immediate aid and safe shelter under the state's social welfare initiatives. The outreach, coordinated by the Ministry of Women, Childhood and Community Wellbeing Development (KPWK), was announced by its Minister, Dato Sri Fatimah Abdullah, during a press conference held shortly after the operation concluded. 'As of 2am, we identified 14 men, two women, and one underage girl living without shelter,' she told reporters after the operation. She added that the operation was aimed at encouraging the homeless to receive support services through the Community Social Support Centre and the Temporary Transit Centre (TTG) Kuching. Fatimah stressed that TTG is not a detention centre, but a dignified, voluntary safe space. 'They are free to come and go, the aim is to offer them a place to sleep safely, bathe, eat, and slowly regain confidence in support systems. 'During the day, they can work; at night, they return to sleep,' she explained. She cited the case of 'Pak Mos,' a man who had lived on the streets for over 30 years and had finally agreed to receive assistance. 'At first, he refused, but tonight, he followed us to the Community Social Support Centre and will be placed at TTG. 'This is a huge step because trust is the first phase,' she said. Fatimah said individuals will undergo health screenings at the Community Social Support Centre before being placed at TTG. Conditions such as high blood pressure, leg cramps, or other underlying health issues will be identified and referred for appropriate action. She also noted the importance of identifying peer influencers within the homeless community. 'We found someone who can act as a leader. If we help him, he can help us reach others. 'His influence led several of his friends to agree to engage with us,' she said. The operation also highlighted the fluidity of homelessness data in Kuching. Fatimah said some individuals may return to their hometowns temporarily, while others end up on the streets due to job loss or inability to pay rent. 'One person voluntarily went to Hidayah Centre after losing their home due to rent issues. 'This shows homelessness isn't always long-term; it can happen suddenly and to anyone,' she explained. According to Fatimah, 134 personnel were involved, each playing a key role such as verifying identification documents, referring health issues, or addressing substance abuse concerns. Four teams were deployed to high-risk zones: Group 1 covered the Waterfront, India Street, and Electra House; Group 2 covered Satok, Wisma Satok, and Matang; Group 3 in Padungan, Padang Ragbi, and Tabuan Melayu; while Group 4 focused on King Centre, Batu 3, and MJC areas. The 12 participating agencies included the Social Development Council (MPS), Kuching Resident and District Office, Royal Malaysia Police (PDRM), Social Welfare Department (JKM/PKMB Kuching), Immigration Department (JIM), Kuching Divisional Health Office, National Anti-Drug Agency (AADK), Kuching North City Hall (DBKU), Civil Defence Force (JPAM), National Registration Department (JPN), Kuching South City Council (MBKS), and Hidayah Centre Foundation. — The Borneo Post
