The number of parents over the age of 60 who have lost their only child now totals more than a million in China. As a vulnerable social group, they need care and support from the government and public.

 

Now that China’s family-planning policy has been relaxed to allow couples a second child, many women are weighing the medical risks of giving birth late in life against the concern that something may happen to their only offspring, leaving them without a source of economic and emotional support in old age. But elderly parents who have already lost a child are left with few options.

 

Millions at risk
Though the mortality rate of the young is lower than that of other age groups, there are 150 million children from single-child households in China, meaning more and more couples are exposed to the risk of losing their only child. More than 1 million elderly parents have already experienced such misfortune. They are forced to cope with both the emotional tragedy of losing a loved one and the harsh economic reality of being deprived of a vital source of support in old age.

These parents will experience more hardships in terms of economic security, medical services and spiritual comfort than other parents with a more typical family structure. The phenomenon of childless seniors will persist for a long time even though the family-planning policy has been relaxed. The twilight years of many parents whose only child has passed are spent in solitude and desperation, leading to an inferior quality of life and a shortened life span.

 

Benefit standards reconsidered
Since 2014, the allowance standard for those families who have lost their only child has improved, though in some provinces, it only covers the basic cost of living. These parents can get a special allowance for losing their only child in addition to the minimum living allowance. But the two should not be given out based on the same standard. One is a subsidy for impoverished families, which is a type of public welfare, while the other is compensation for those families who obeyed the one-child policy and have lost their only child. Official statistics show that a single-child family is not necessarily richer than families with more than one child. Therefore, more care should be given to those families who have lost their only child.

Currently, the allowances for families in urban areas that have lost their only child are higher than those given to rural families. The different standards may be out of consideration for the differentiated living costs in urban and rural areas. But it needs to be noted that the problem is more severe in rural areas, and parents in the countryside should receive the same allowance as those in the city.
 

The hazards facing rural parents who have lost a child are usually higher. And they generally are at a younger age when they lose their child, which means that they have to live with hardship for a longer time. Also, the mortality rate in rural areas exceeds that of urban areas, according to China’s sixth national census.

 

Suggestions and predictions
A unified standard should be established for urban and rural families who have lost their only child. In most rural areas, manual labor remains the chief source of income. Subsidies can be increased at the local level, as well. For example, local financial departments can give out one-time payments and increase the monthly allowance. Moreover, the specific standard can be adjusted every several years according to changes in the cost of living.
 

The actual number of families who applied for and received compensation for losing an only child is much smaller than expected. For instance, in 2012, the number of families who registered for the benefit was as low as 4,500, which is much lower than the estimation based on the morality rate of each age group. Some families may not have applied for the allowance because they were unaware of the policy. Some others consider the notion of receiving money for their child’s death to be distasteful. Therefore, it is the responsibility of all segments of society to actively guide the public to rationally understand the problem, and local departments can assist the families to apply for the allowance.
 

Single-child families who had children after the relaxation of the one-child policy will no longer be eligible for the allowance if they lose their child later in life, because the national family-planning policy is not at fault for their predicament. If such families have a second child in the future, they also will not be able to apply for the allowance. If they stay as single-child families and lose their child in the future, then they are still eligible. Therefore, in the context of the newly implemented policy, the number of single-child bereaved families who can enjoy the allowance can be expected to first rise and then drop in the coming years.