The flexibly employed, regardless of their hukou, or household registration status, are now able to participate in Shenzhen’s endowment insurance program, according to the city’s human resources and social security bureau.

Eligible flexible workers without a Shenzhen hukou can decide their own endowment insurance contributions and handle it online through the bureau’s official website or go to offline counters that handle social security insurance. The corresponding functions of self-service terminals will also be launched in the near future.

Such a move is in accordance with relevant provincial and national policies, which allow flexible workers in Shenzhen who have not reached the legal retirement age to apply for basic endowment insurance for enterprise employees on their own.

The new policy covers a number of groups, including the self-employed, part-time workers who don’t have basic endowment insurance paid by their employers, employees who work for e-commerce, online ride-hailing, online food delivery, express logistics and other new business platforms but haven’t signed employment contracts with these businesses, and other flexible workers recognized by the State and Guangdong Province.

The base salary, by which endowment insurance contributions are calculated, for eligible flexible workers without the city’s hukou fall within a scope between 2,200 yuan (US$344) and 22,941 yuan. The contribution rate is 20 percent, of which 12 percent is credited to the social pool and 8 percent to the individual account.

Flexible workers who have a hukou from outside Guangdong Province should set up a temporary basic pension payment account if the applicants have reached age 50 for males and 40 for females. The basic pension insurance paid in Shenzhen can be transferred to their hometowns when they reach the statutory retirement ages.