China has improved the urban and rural subsistence security system in 2008. New steps are achieved in urban subsistence security system by improving the level of social security，enhancing the grassroots work of urban foundation and completing relative matched measures. New leaps are achieved in rural subsistence securing system by a successful transformation from the “select coverage” to “comprehensive coverage”，and the level of social security has been increased. Both motivation and tension in expanding the scale of social security are growing and policies to further expand the coverage of subsistence security system have been made by central government，but local governments have done their best. An urgent change is needed in the current rule of determine the criteria for eligible recipients to avoid some undesirable tendencies caused by it. Since financial structure has changed fundamentally and criteria in different places are converging，it’s time to take some power back. It is important for recipients to enjoy dynamic management，which requires a household survey centre independent of the proving agencies in life guarantee system.