Social assistance for poor children in urban China: A qualitative study from the recipients' perspective

• The feelings about social assistance for poor children that the recipients expressed were complex and mainly included gratitude, helplessness, shame and exclusion.
• From the under-served recipients’ feelings, the residual and rudimentary feature of current policy can be found out.
• The feelings reflect that current social assistance policy is inadequate and the recipients are under-served.
• Current social assistance policy for poor children in China which only includes differentiated aid and education aid should be further improved.

In urban China, the recipients' experiences living with social assistance are neglected. This article examines social assistance for poor children in urban China, mainly by interviewing parents and children from urban Dibao households in Tianjin and Chengdu. It finds that the recipients' feelings included gratitude, helplessness, shame and exclusion which reflected limited policy effect on material support and social exclusion prevention. It argues that the recipients are under-served and current social assistance policy for poor children which only includes differentiated aid and education aid is inadequate and should be further improved.