Homeless man scavenges for 21 years unaware of $63,000 pension sitting in his account
A 71-year-old homeless man in central China who spent 21 years collecting scrap to survive has received more than 420,000 yuan (US$63,000) in pension payments he did not know he was owed.
Ru, a homeless man from Hunan Province, had been unaware for 21 years that he held a $63,000 pension in his account. Identified only by his surname, Ru was handed a social security card in Changde, where staff reported it held 424,204 yuan. Born in the 1970s, Ru attended a commercial technical school in Zhuzhou and worked for about 30 years at a state-owned shop before it went bankrupt in the early 2000s.
After losing his job, Ru struggled with debt and quarreled with relatives before turning to scavenging for survival. He later moved to Changde, where he has lived for approximately 13 years.
In 2024, social assistance worker Wu Jinhui and colleagues discovered Ru living in an abandoned building. Initially reluctant, Ru eventually provided his personal details after several visits and deliveries of daily necessities. Records revealed Ru had reached his retirement age of 60 in 2015 and was entitled to a monthly pension of around 3,700 yuan ($550), which had accumulated unclaimed for more than a decade.
Ru believed he had to pay pension premiums himself after losing his job, giving up due to financial constraints.
Chinese law entitles individuals with at least 15 years of contributions to receive a monthly pension at retirement age, and Ru's employer had deducted premiums from his salary during his 30 years of employment. The authorities became aware of Ru's pension entitlement in 2015 but struggled to locate him due to his lack of a mobile phone and collective household registration. It took over a year of paperwork across multiple departments in Changde and Zhuzhou to claim the pension.
Ru, who never married and has no children, plans to repay his sister and cousin, settle his debts, and use the remainder for his old age. He intends to rent an apartment and purchase a smartphone. For six months, Ru had been sleeping in the stairwell of a residential building, where the property manager noted he kept the space clean, lit candles due to the absence of electricity, and accepted a bottle of cooking oil as a token of appreciation before moving out.
Written by urgent.news from VnExpress International's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
