Recently, the National Healthcare Security Administration conducted China’s first special unannounced inspection targeting maternity allowance fraud. Screenshot of the suspect Xu on CCTV News

Recently, the National Healthcare Security Administration (NHSA) conducted China's first special unannounced inspection targeting maternity allowance fraud. The investigation revealed that at one company, 13 out of 15 employees gave birth in a short period and collectively claimed over 1 million yuan ($143,788.7) in maternity allowances. After assessment, the NHSA promptly established an inspection team and dispatched it to Kunming, Southwest China's Yunnan Province, for an on-site investigation, CCTV News reported Wednesday.

There were companies that hire almost exclusively women of childbearing age, and nearly all these "employees" give birth within six months of employment. Suspiciously, these companies do not assign them work, instead raising the salaries of pregnant employees severalfold, enrolling them in medical insurance based on those inflated salaries, and finally applying for maternity allowances on their behalf.

The inspection team obtained the records of the 13 employees who claimed maternity allowances at this company and found not only complete clinical birth records but also medical records for newborns that matched the application information exactly. Each employee received approximately 100,000 yuan in maternity allowances, with the claims concentrated in 2024 and the first half of 2025.

The inspection team discovered that the company was registered at a residential address and showed no signs of actual business operations.

Through inquiries with local human resources and social security departments, it was revealed that among the female employees who gave birth under this company, only one had signed an employment contract, while the other 12 had not, CCTV News reported.

Further investigations revealed significant discrepancies between the actual amounts received by the claimants and the amounts claimed on their behalf. In one case, a new mother from a registered low-income household had 102,000 yuan claimed in her name, but she only received 32,000 yuan.

As the investigation deepened, two other companies under the actual controller in Chengdu and Hangzhou came to light. The Chengdu-based company, established in December 2023, had 11 employees, six of whom gave birth and received 394,200 yuan in maternity allowances. Local authorities then arrested a suspect surnamed Xu.

Kou Ling, deputy director of the Second Supervision Division of the NHSA's Fund Supervision Department, explained that in this case, the company claimed an average of over 100,000 yuan per person in maternity allowances on behalf of the insured individuals, but the individuals actually received only 30,000 to 40,000 yuan. Most of the fraudulently obtained allowances were retained by the company, per CCTV News.

According to the suspect, in addition to operating in Kunming and Chengdu, she had also set up a company in Hangzhou, East China's Zhejiang Province, for similar activities. However, this attempt was blocked during the application stage by big data monitoring. Preliminary estimates indicate that the case involves approximately 4 million yuan in maternity allowances. The Kunming medical insurance department has transferred the relevant clues to the police, and investigations are ongoing.

Global Times