Only around 24 percent of Chinese seniors nationwide could live on their pension in 2010, the Beijing Times newspaper reported Sunday, citing data released by two social security agencies at a seminar held in Beijing.

At present, around 40.7 percent of elderly people depend on their own families especially their children, and 40 percent of them thought they had become a burden for their families, according to research done by the China Association of Social Welfare and School of Labor and Human Resources.

In rural areas, only 4.6 percent of seniors could live on their pension, and 41.2 percent of them still have to work to earn enough to support themselves, the research said.