The Ministry of Civil Affairs said late Sunday that 4 percent of subsistence allowances are "wrongly granted" nationwide.

An official from the ministry revealed the figure citing a report from the National Audit Office in the first half of 2012.

The official said problems still exist in subsistence allowance distribution, despite efforts to ensure fairness and transparency in the process.

The remarks came after recent media reports quoted a social security green paper issued by Chinese Academy of Social Sciences as saying 60 percent of the surveyed families receiving subsistence allowances are not qualified.

Two professors who were in charge of the survey told Xinhua that their findings were misinterpreted by some media.