Social welfare in China has undergone various changes throughout history. The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security is responsible for the social welfare system. Welfare in China is linked to the hukou system. Those holding non-agricultural hukou status have access to a number of programs provided by the government, such as healthcare, employment, retirement pensions, housing, and education. While rural residents traditionally were expected to provide for themselves, in 2014 the Chinese Communist Party announced reforms aimed at providing rural citizens access to historically urban social programs. In pre-1980s reform China, the socialist state fulfilled the needs of society from cradle to grave. Child care, education, job placement, housing, subsistence, health care, and elder care were largely the responsibility of the work unit as administered through state-owned enterprises and agricultural communes and collectives. As those systems disappeared or were reformed, the "iron rice bowl" approach to welfare changed. Article 14 of the constitution stipulates that the state "builds and improves a welfare system that corresponds with the level of economic development. In 2004 China experienced the greatest decrease in its poorest population since 1999. People with a per capita income of less than 668 renminbi decreased by 2.9 million people or 10 percent; those with a per capita income of less than 924 RMB decreased by 6.4 million people or 11.4 percent, according to statistics from the State Council’s Poverty Reduction Office. Welfare reforms since the late 1990s have included unemployment insurance, medical insurance, workers’ compensation insurance, maternity benefits, communal pension funds, individual pension accounts, universal health care, and a carbon tax. A law approved February 2013 will mandate a nationwide minimum wage at 40% average urban salaries to be phased in fully by 2015. China introduced the one-child policy decades ago, and this has helped reduce the strain on the government resources and economy. At present, the rules are modified and people can have more than one child. Furthermore, for many of the minority groups, there are some benefits available. The one-child policy in China also did not apply to these minority groups.
