Lottery boost for China's elderly

China's elderly population is expected to reach 31% by 2050

China is to launch its first ever nationwide lottery on 1 September, to raise revenue for the country's rapidly increasing elderly population, national media reports say.

According to the China Daily, between 500m and 1bn yuan ($60-120m) worth of tickets will be sold during the initial phase of the lottery which runs until the end of the year.

Officials say the aim of the lottery is to improve the living standards of China's 130 million-strong elderly population.

The lottery will create one yuan millionaire every week officials say

Under the lottery rules each ticket will cost 2 yuan ($0.24), giving four opportunities to win a weekly jackpot of 1 million yuan ($120,000) - that's approximately 150 times the average annual income.

Just under one fifth of ticket buyers can expect to win some sort of prize.

At present the elderly make up just over 10% of the population but with the changing balance of young and old it is predicted that figure will rise to more than 31% by the year 2050.

Providing care

These changing demographics, largely a result of China's strict one-child policy, are already placing a strain on the working population.

A growing number of single young people find themselves faced with the daunting prospect of caring for parents and four grandparents - a phenomenon known as a 4-2-1 family.

With the communist welfare system fast disintegrating under the pressure of economic reforms, many people are finding it increasingly hard to provide care for their elders.

Those that can afford it have begun to transfer their traditional responsibilities of looking after their relatives at home to private nursing institutions - a move which has itself sparked some resentment.

By the year 2030 officials estimate that care for an estimated 300 million elderly will consume a full 10% of national income.

Job opportunities

Without further action being taken, experts say the burden of caring for a greying population could begin to have a major impact on the speed of China's development.

Announcing the launch of the new lottery Wang Baiquan, deputy general manager of the China Welfare Lottery Issuing Centre, said approximately 53% of the cash raised would be used for prize money and the rest would go to welfare coffers.

"Another advantage of issuing welfare lottery tickets is that we can create tens of thousands of job opportunities for laid-off workers," the China Daily quoted him as saying.

He said about 15,000 workers laid off from state-owned enterprises would be recruited as full-time ticket sellers.