Provident fund is a housing provident fund stipulated by the state and paid by employees in proportion to their wages. It is mandatory, welfare, security and mutual assistance. The paid provident fund belongs to individual employees and no one else has the right to use it.

The main purposes of the provident fund are: buying, building, rebuilding and overhauling self-occupied houses, repaying the principal and interest of home purchase loans, and subsidizing the rent that exceeds the family wage income.

(Introduction to information about housing provident fund):

Housing accumulation fund refers to the long-term housing savings paid by state organs, state-owned enterprises, urban collective enterprises, foreign-invested enterprises, urban private enterprises and other urban enterprises, institutions, private non-enterprise units, social organizations and their employees.

The definition of housing provident fund includes the following five aspects:

(1) The housing accumulation fund is only established in cities and towns, and the housing accumulation fund system is not established in rural areas.

(2) Only on-the-job employees can establish the housing accumulation fund system. Unemployed urban residents and retired workers do not implement the housing provident fund system.

(3) The housing accumulation fund consists of two parts, one part is paid by the employee's unit, and the other part is paid by the employee. After the employee's individual deposit is withheld by the unit, it will be deposited into the individual account of the housing provident fund together with the unit deposit.

(4) The long-term nature of housing provident fund deposit. Once the housing provident fund system is established, employees must be paid continuously in accordance with the regulations during their employment, and shall not be suspended or interrupted except for employees' retirement or other circumstances stipulated in the Regulations on the Administration of Housing Provident Fund. It embodies the stability, unity, standardization and compulsion of housing provident fund.

(5) The housing accumulation fund is a personal housing savings fund specially used by employees for housing consumption expenditure according to regulations, which has two characteristics:

First, it is cumulative, that is, although the housing provident fund is an integral part of employees' wages, it is not paid in cash, and must be deposited in a special account opened by the housing provident fund management center in the entrusted bank, and special account management is implemented.

The second is special. The housing provident fund is earmarked for special purposes and can only be used for the purchase, construction, overhaul of self-occupied housing or the payment of rent during storage. Only when the employee retires, dies, completely loses the ability to work, terminates the labor relationship with the unit or moves out of the original city can the housing provident fund in his account be withdrawn.

According to China's regulations, all enterprises, whether state-owned or private, must deposit and pay housing provident fund for their employees.

Reference link: Baidu Encyclopedia: Housing Provident Fund