Clipart Korea
A man in his 70s who had scraped by collecting scrap for 21 years in China’s Hunan province learned belatedly that about 420,000 yuan (roughly 84 million won) had piled up in a pension account in his name. He qualified for the payments in 2015 but never claimed them because he did not know the procedure.
Lu, 71, who lives in Changde, Hunan province, received a bank card linked to his pension account late last month after going through an application process with social welfare authorities, according to Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post and China’s Changde Daily on the 5th. The card held a balance of 424,204 yuan. The Changde social welfare center found Lu living in an abandoned building in the winter of 2024, delivered daily necessities to him over several months, and confirmed his pension entitlement after verifying his identity and checking his eligibility. Lu at first turned down an offer to move into a temporary shelter but disclosed personal information as the support continued. Chinese media reported that coordination among the relevant government departments took about a year.
Lu graduated from a technical school and worked for more than 30 years at a state-run store in Zhuzhou. He retired in the early 2000s with a severance payment during a restructuring, but after spending all of it and falling into debt, he turned to collecting scrap to make a living. Chinese media reported that his daily income was around 10 yuan. He believed he would have to pay insurance premiums separately to receive a pension after retirement and gave up on claiming it because he could not afford the payments, according to the reports. Without a mobile phone, he also had little chance of learning about the system.
A welfare center official explained that Lu’s employer had deducted part of his wages as insurance premiums and paid them during his years of employment. Chinese law entitles people who have paid social insurance premiums for at least 15 years to draw a pension once they reach retirement age. Lu reached 60, then the retirement age for men, in 2015, qualifying him for about 3,700 yuan (roughly 740,000 won) a month, and the payments accumulated in his account over the following decade or so. Dividing the balance by the monthly payment comes to about nine years and six months’ worth.
China began raising its statutory retirement age in stages over 15 years starting in January 2025. The age rises to 63 from 60 for men, to 58 from 55 for women in managerial positions and to 55 from 50 for other female workers. The minimum contribution period required to draw a pension will also lengthen by six months each year from 2030, reaching 20 years in 2039. People aged 60 and over account for more than 20% of the population, according to data from China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs, adding to the strain on pension finances. Lu reached retirement age before the revision took effect and was therefore covered by the earlier rules.
When handing over the card, the welfare center urged Lu to keep it in a safe place and to watch out for telecommunications fraud. Lu expressed gratitude for the support from the social welfare agency and the government departments involved, and is said to be planning to return to his hometown of Zhuzhou, where he has relatives.