NPC Standing Committee Adopts the Revised Prison Law and the Social Assistance Law

On April 30, the 22nd session of the Standing Committee of the 14th National People's Congress adopted the Prison Law of the People's Republic of China (Revised in 2026) and the Social Assistance Law of the People's Republic of China (the "Law"). The Law shall take effect on July 1, 2026.

The Law, consisting of 78 articles in seven chapters, covers general provisions, assistance beneficiaries and measures, assistance procedures, participation of social forces, supervision and safeguards, legal liability, and supplementary provisions. It clarifies that the beneficiaries of social assistance include persons in extreme difficulty, households receiving minimum subsistence allowances, marginal households of minimum subsistence allowances, households facing hardship due to rigid expenditures, disaster-affected persons, persons temporarily experiencing severe difficulties in basic living, persons requiring emergency medical assistance, and vagrants without means of livelihood. With respect to review and determination, the Law calls for improving the mechanism for verifying household economic conditions, and enhancing the efficiency and accuracy of review and determination. Information sharing shall be strengthened, and where any information can be verified through the household economic condition verification mechanism, the beneficiaries shall not be required to provide such information.



(Source: http://www.npc.gov.cn/npc/c2/c30834/202604/t20260430_454309.html

http://www.npc.gov.cn/npc/c2/c30834/202604/t20260430_454303.html)

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