More than a hundred government employees in the southwestern Chinese province of Sichuan have been caught illegally claiming benefits for the unemployed.
The scam had been running since 2014 across 43 villages and communities with a total cost to the public purse of 1.5 million yuan (US$210,600), local anti-corruption authorities told People’s Daily.
The case was unearthed when the Sichuan provincial human resources and social security department detected anomalies during routine data checks.
It found that many of the officials claiming the benefits had regular incomes that exceeded the local minimum wage and clearly did not qualify for jobless benefits.
The case highlights a long-standing problem in China’s social security system, where billions of yuan have been lost in payments to “ghost” pensioners and bogus disability or pandemic relief claims.
