Recently, it was reported that two cities in Shandong Province illegally disbursed pension benefits to 505 deceased individuals between 2022 and 2024, totaling 2.4148 million yuan (RMB).
The Shandong Provincial Audit Office released a report on July 29 on the audit of the implementation of the provincial budget and other financial revenues and expenditures for the year 2024. The report disclosed issues identified during audits in 13 cities, including some institutions illegally distributing pensions. During the period from 2022 to 2024, 48 counties’ pension agencies in two cities illegally distributed pension benefits totaling 2.4148 million yuan to 505 deceased individuals.
Additionally, 13 cities failed to timely recover 19.77 million yuan of pension and occupational pension personal account funds from 1,987 deceased individuals who had been deceased for over a year, as well as 21.6879 million yuan from 8,367 retired enterprise or institutional workers who had contributed to the basic pension insurance for urban and rural residents.
According to mainland media reports, as of August 22, at least 21 provinces have successively published audit reports on the implementation of the 2024 budget and other financial revenues and expenditures. Many provinces have situations similar to Shandong.
For example, in its 2024 audit report, Beijing revealed that district-level social security agencies disbursed 19.5433 million yuan in basic pension benefits to 284 incarcerated or deceased individuals’ accounts, 172,400 yuan in living care fees to the accounts of deceased work-related injury workers, and 1.9995 million yuan in funeral expenses to relatives who did not meet the conditions.
Jilin’s audit report also identified that two cities illegally disbursed 344,000 yuan in pension benefits to 15 individuals, including deceased and incarcerated persons who did not meet the criteria.
Recently, the new social security regulations introduced by the Chinese Communist Party have attracted widespread attention. The CCP announced the mandatory implementation of new social security regulations starting from September 1. All employers must contribute to employees’ social security. Any written agreement or verbal agreement to “voluntarily waive social security” is deemed invalid. This new regulation has raised concerns about the survival crisis of small and medium-sized enterprises, potentially leading to reduced salaries or unemployment for employees. Some analysts believe that the true purpose of this measure is to expand the scale of social security funds to address the pressure of pension payments brought about by the aging population and enhance the sustainability of the pension system.