The Research on Benefit Standard of System of Urban Minimum Living in Beijing: from Absolute Poverty to Relative Poverty

The benefit standard is a vital factor of the minimum living security system. Based on the related data from Beijing statistical yearbook of recent ten years, this paper dicusses whether the benefit standard of system of urban minimum living impact the absolute and relative poverty in Beijing. This study discovers that the benefit standard of Beijing urban resident minimum living security system met the basic living need of the security objects, and maintained the subsistence level in the dimension of absolute poverty. But in the aspect of relative poverty, it hardly propelled the relative equity, and it was limited to promote shared development. According to the proportion of total spending of the minimum living security in the local government’s revenue and expenditure during the past years, the social expenditure has been affordable, and it is feasible to improve the benefit standard and reset it in the sense of relative poverty.