Ho Chi Minh City residents with average annual incomes of VND12-16 million (USD571.4-761.9) will be listed in the group of people who live near the poverty line.
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| HCM City releases new poverty criteria |
The regulated income doubles the national average level for urban residents of VND501,000-VND650,000 per person per month.
Earlier, the city issued its own criteria for poor households of below VND12 million per person per year, applied to both inner-city and suburban residents. This also doubles the national average figure of VND6 million per person a year.
Due to the poverty criteria disparity, HCM City faces many difficulties in supporting households living near the poverty line. For instance, in terms of health insurance, local poor people (based on the national criteria) are not offered policies, but only for the nearly-poor. Therefore, they have to pay 20% of hospital fees, instead of 5% as stipulated. To improve the situation, the city has used its budget to bridge 15% of the fee disparity so that they can be given equal priority as the poor based on the national poverty criteria.
The city is also supporting local poor households in narrowing the priority gap compared to the poor in other localities nationwide. For instance, children whose family have an average annual income of less than VND10 million (USD476) per person per year will be totally exempted from school fees. Children whose family has an average annual income of VND10-12 million per person per year will be discounted half of their school fees.
The city will spend VND50-70 billion (USD2.38-3.3 million) from its budget on local poverty reduction funding.