Xie, a 42-year-old woman from Shanghai, has been sentenced to one and a half years in prison for fraudulently claiming 66,200 yuan ($9,334) in maternity insurance. Working for a foreign company, Xie was found guilty of faking multiple miscarriages to receive benefits meant for genuine maternity cases.
According to a report by the South China Morning Post, Xie forged medical documents to claim maternity indemnity, part of China’s social insurance system that covers pregnancy-related medical expenses and provides financial support during maternity leave.
Xie, who has a background in telecommunications and computer science and earns over 30,000 yuan monthly, initially received legitimate maternity benefits after a real miscarriage two years ago. However, her subsequent attempts to defraud the system involved creating fake medical documents, including maternity certificates and discharge summaries, using computer software.
Despite successfully obtaining maternity benefits twice using forged documents, Xie’s attempt to claim an additional 40,000 yuan for another fabricated miscarriage was rejected. When she suffered another genuine miscarriage in February 2024, she applied for maternity insurance again.
During a routine review, insurance officials discovered discrepancies in Xie’s documents and noted multiple claims over four years. This led to a police investigation, and Xie was found to have filed five maternity insurance claims, including fraudulent ones. Xie confessed to the fraud, returned the embezzled money, and expressed deep regret for her actions. She cited financial desperation and health concerns as reasons for her decision to fake miscarriages.
Judge Wang Xinyuan remarked that Xie’s actions not only violated her company’s property rights but also severely undermined the integrity of the social insurance system.