Chinese woman claims maternity insurance five times by faking miscarriages

A Chinese woman faked miscarriages and used forged medical papers to claim maternity insurance worth 66,200 yuan (US$9,300) in Shanghai. The weird incident has attracted massive attention on social media platforms.

A key part of the social insurance system of China is maternity indemnity.

The insurance is funded by employers and covers medical expenses which are related to childbirth and pregnancy and also provide women with financial support during maternity leave.

The 42-year-old woman works for a foreign company in Shanghai and earns more than 30,000 yuan (US$4,200) as monthly salary, reported Shanghai TV. The woman had studied telecommunications and computer science at university.

How did the woman start claiming fake maternity insurance?

When the woman was on maternity leave last December, she recalled how she successfully claimed insurance after she suffered a miscarriage two years ago. This incident inspired her to start faking.

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With the help of computer software, the woman created false medical documents which included a discharge summary and a maternity certificate, in which she claimed that she had suffered a miscarriage in the hospital.

Shanghai Prosecutor Gong Xiaoting said that the online insurance application system of the country has been designed for convenience and can be exploited illegally by criminals with the help of photo-editing technology.

The woman submitted the online insurance claims twice using forged medical papers and received around 66,200 yuan in maternity benefits.

After every claim, the woman destroyed the related computer records and paper documents.

In 2024, she again made an attempt to use the same method and, with a fabricated miscarriage report applied for more than 40,000 yuan (US$5,600) maternity insurance money, however, her claim was rejected.

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She again applied for maternity insurance money in February after the birth of her only child. This time the application was legitimate.

When her document was reviewed, the officials found she had filed five maternity insurance claims in a span of four years and there were various suspicious similarities in the documents. Her case was reported to the police.

The woman then turned herself in and gave back the entire fraudulently obtained money.

"As an older pregnant woman with poor health, I worried about medical costs. In desperation, I impulsively faked miscarriages to get the insurance money. I have already resigned from my job and I deeply regret what I have done," she said.

She was given one-and-a-half-year suspended jail term by the court on August 16 because of her voluntary confession.

(With inputs from agencies)