Social Security Office Ordered to Rescind Decision to Claw Back Pension Benefits Already Issued to Falun Gong Practitioner

(Minghui.org) My younger sister and I live in the same city, and we both practice Falun Dafa, a spiritual discipline also known as Falun Gong that is based on the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance.

My sister was arrested in September 2016 after being reported for distributing information exposing the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s persecution of Falun Gong. She was later sentenced to three and a half years in prison.

While she was still serving time, the social security office in her district suspended her pension in October 2019. As soon as she was released in March 2020, they sent a staffer to her home, verbally ordering her to return the pension benefits issued to her between September 2016 and September 2019, totaling more than 120,000 yuan.

My sister refused to comply and received a written notice from the social security office in August 2021. The notice again ordered her to return her “illegally obtained” pension benefits and stated that she may choose to file an administrative reconsideration application with her district judicial bureau within ten days (of receipt of the notice) if she objected to the decision.

Coming to a Clear Understanding of What My Sister Was Entitled To

When my sister discussed this matter with me, we both recognized that she was not the first Falun Gong practitioner subjected to this type of financial persecution by way of pension suspension. Minghui.org has published many cases of practitioners across China having their pension suspended and being ordered to pay back retirement benefits issued to them during their prison terms.

The local social security offices often cited a supposed policy barring retirees from receiving pension benefits while serving time for their faith, when China’s labor law has no such stipulations.

My sister and I also learned from sharing articles on Minghui.org that social security offices across China are fiduciaries tasked with collecting pension contributions, investing the contributions, and disbursing pension benefits. No individual or any government agency (including social security offices) has the right to forfeit workers’ hard-earned pension funds under any circumstances.

Given the above understanding, my sister and I were determined to appeal her district social security office’s decision, as she was fully entitled to the money (more than 120,000 yuan) in dispute.

Explaining the Illegality of Persecution of Practitioners

My sister and I wrote a letter and mailed copies of the letter to her district social security office, its supervising agencies at the municipal and the provincial levels, as well as her district judicial bureau.

In the letter, we explained that the CCP’s persecution of Falun Gong practitioners lacked legal basis from the very beginning. As such, law-abiding practitioners like my sister should never have been arrested or jailed for upholding their faith, much less being subjected to various forms of financial persecution, including pension suspension.

We also visited as many of those government agencies as we possible could. We talked to people there face to face and urged them to stop participating in the persecution of Falun Gong. Some were very receptive and empathetic, and they heeded our advice to quit the CCP and its subordinate organizations. We did encounter people who appeared indifferent or even hostile to us, but we were not deterred because we at least had informed them of what Falun Gong is and why the persecution of it is wrong.

We were received by three people when we went to my sister’s district judicial bureau to submit her application for administrative reconsideration. One of them was a lawyer employed by the bureau. He understood it very well when we said Falun Gong practitioners should never have been persecuted for exercising their constitutional right to freedom of belief. He quit the CCP without any hesitation.

Finding a Lawyer Willing to Represent My Sister

A local practitioner gave my sister and I a list of law firms in our city. We spent several days visiting each firm, and all the lawyers (except the last one we visited) said no when they realized it was a Falun Gong case.

The last lawyer we spoke to was encouraged by cases of other lawyers defending Falun Gong practitioners. He agreed to represent my sister and said, “Nowadays many people know that Falun Gong is good and the CCP is rotten to the core. Feel free to reach out if you Falun Gong folks need defense lawyers again in the future.”

Administrative Reconsideration Hearing

My sister, her lawyer, and I later attended the hearing held by her district judicial bureau.

Before the hearing formally started, a judicial bureau lawyer (not the one mentioned above), briefed my sister’s lawyer in private on her district social security office’s violation of certain regulations in handling her case.

My sister’s lawyer was thus able to forcefully defend her during the hearing. The social security office’s lawyer could not refute what he said.

The judicial bureau ruled at the end of the hearing that my sister broke no law by practicing Falun Gong and that she should be entitled to all her pension funds. The bureau ordered the social security office to rescind its decision to claw back the 120,000 plus yuan of pension funds issued to my sister during her prison term.

As a side note, during the briefing before the hearing started, the judicial bureau lawyer also admitted that they initially didn’t have any plans to hold a hearing, as they thought my sister would not fight the social security office’s decision. Upon seeing her lawyer there, the judicial bureau knew she was serious and then decided to follow the legal procedures to hold a hearing. This goes to show how important it is for Falun Gong practitioners to understand their legal rights and stand ready to safeguard their rights.