The Minimum Living Standard Guarantee System (MLSGS) forms the core of China's current social assistance policy, and special assistance programmes are used to supplement this policy. This paper scrutinizes the evolution and achievements of the social assistance policy, and analyses the challenges and problems that the policy faces. In this paper, we argue that the international trend of social assistance reforms, institutional background changes and the problems of social assistance in China require a developmental model to guide the future development of the social assistance policy. Therefore, social assistance policy should not only fulfil the basic living requirements of the underprivileged and enable underprivileged people to share the outcomes of economic and social development, but also should enable the underprivileged to develop human capital and participate in the labour market. To move towards developmental social assistance, this article proposes several relevant policy suggestions.

最低生活標准保障制度是中國現時社會救助政策的核心，特殊援助則是輔助政策。本文審視社會救助制度的演化和成果，分析政策面臨的挑戰和問題。本文提出在國際社會救助改革的潮流、機構變遷以至中國社會救助問題等背景下，社會救助政策需要以發展模式作為未來的動向，即是社會救助不應只滿足貧窮戶的生活需要以及簡單讓他們分享經濟社會發展的成果，而要同時推動發展貧窮戶的人力資本和勞動市場參與。為了邁向發展型社會援助，本文提出多個相關政策建議。

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