Officials' kinfolks swindled govt subsidies
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This year about 7,000 people in East China's Jiangxi province have been found making fraudulent claims for subsistence allowances for residents living in abject poverty.
These people, who turned out to be members of cadres' families, have since been disqualified from a minimum living allowance scheme that covers 2.43 million rural and urban residents in Jiangxi, Xinhua News Agency reported on Monday.
These acts of fraud were discovered in public hearings or democratic discussions, organized by local authorities to determine applicants' qualifications for subsidies, Xinhua said.
The 7,000 relatives of officials, who have records on file with civil affairs departments, failed to meet standards.
Urban residents whose family income is less than 267 yuan (US$40) a month are entitled to a monthly subsidy of 182 yuan.
In rural areas, the threshold for a monthly 76-yuan subsidy is 115 yuan.
According to a report by China National Radio, frauds discovered in Cepai village, Zhuze town in southern Jiangxi, where 16 well-off relatives of village officials were among 88 people claiming an allowance, were typical cases.
Meanwhile, Chen Hecheng, a Cepai villager in his 70s, has had several claims rejected even though he leads a hard life with a son and daughter-in-law who both suffer from chronic diseases.
A deputy head with Zhuze township, surnamed Wen, admitted that false claims exist due to the ambiguous definition of the qualifications for a minimum living allowance and lack of supervision.
Li Liguo, minister of civil affairs, said the government will make efforts to improve the transparency of application and distribution procedures through improved disclosure of information online and through public supervision to rule out false claims.
In the future, family income will no longer be the only qualifying test for distributing minimum living subsidies, Li said during a recent interview.
"Thanks to the country's rapid development, it is common for families to own valuable assets. Therefore, we should not only assess families' income but also their assets," he said.
Li added that this new move has been proposed to the State Council and will be applied in urban areas first.
According to the Ministry of Civil Affairs, more than 70 million low-income residents in China receive a regular living allowance from the government, 50 million of them living in rural areas.
