Social assistance plays an indispensable role in poverty alleviation. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China，the orientation of social assistance in poverty alleviation has become more clear，and the policy system has become more precise and reasonable. According to the survey data，the poor families in the rural areas present multiple vulnerabilities in terms of population characteristics，and living burden and economic conditions. To solve the basic living problems，social assistance policies are still needed to make sustained efforts. At the same time，after all the poor people in rural areas are lifted out of poverty in 2020，the work of social assistance for poverty alleviation needs to change from focusing on supporting the poor people to supporting the people who are lifted out of poverty；and from focusing on identifying the poor to focusing on accurate assistance and stable poverty alleviation. Also，it is important to make policy change from focusing on income transfer assistance to focusing on service-based assistance，and accelerate the construction of a multilevel security system for poverty alleviation.