"Huge Sum in Pension Account He Never Knew About... What Happened to Chinese Man in His 70s Who Collected Scrap for 21 Years?"

Thought He Was Not Eligible Despite 30 Years at a State-Owned Company
Pension Account Revealed Approx. 420,000 Yuan in Savings

An elderly man in his seventies from China, who has made a living by collecting scrap materials for 21 years, recently discovered that approximately 420,000 yuan (about 84 million won) had been deposited in a pension account he had not known existed.

According to the South China Morning Post (SCMP) and Changde Daily on October 5, a 71-year-old man surnamed Lu, living in Changde, Hunan Province, received a bank card connected to his pension account at the end of the previous month while applying for social security assistance. When he checked the card’s balance, he was shocked to find a large sum of 424,204 yuan had been deposited.

Chinese yuan

Even more astonishing was that Lu had been unaware for decades that he had such pension assets. Upon learning of this, Lu was overcome with emotion and shed tears, saying, "I never expected I would ever receive so much money," and expressing gratitude for the help of social welfare organizations and relevant government agencies.

After graduating from a technical school, Lu worked for 30 years at a state-run store in Zhuzhou, Hunan Province. However, in the early 2000s, he was dismissed with severance pay due to workforce restructuring.

After using up the severance pay, he fell into debt and eventually began collecting scrap to survive. He later relocated to Changde, where he has lived ever since. In the winter of 2024, Wu Jin-hui, who works at the Changde Social Welfare Center, and his colleagues discovered that Lu was living in an abandoned building.

Initially, Lu refused suggestions to move to a temporary shelter. However, after officials provided daily necessities and promised ongoing support, he opened up to them, agreed to move into a shelter, and shared his personal information.

Wu explained that, under China's retirement policy, Lu became eligible to receive a pension after reaching retirement age in 2015. His monthly pension is about 3,700 yuan (about 740,000 won), and over the past decade, the cumulative amount has exceeded 420,000 yuan.

After being laid off from the state-run store, Lu thought he needed to enroll in long-term insurance separately to receive a pension, but he could not afford the premium due to his financial situation. Without a mobile phone, Lu was cut off from society and unaware of national pension regulations. Wu explained that, during the 30 years Lu worked at the state-run store, the employer automatically deducted a portion of his salary as insurance premiums.

Under Chinese law, a person who has paid insurance premiums for over 15 years is eligible to receive a pension upon reaching retirement age. In 2015, the retirement age for men was 60, but it is now being gradually raised to 63.

When Wu handed Lu his bank card, he advised him to keep it safe, spend his money carefully, and be vigilant against communication fraud such as voice phishing scams.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.