(Minghui.org) After being forced to live away from home for eight years to avoid being persecuted for practicing Falun Gong, a 70-year-old woman in Gaizhou City, Liaoning Province, was sentenced to three years and lost her job as the accountant for the Gaizhou City Academy of Painting. She reached the retirement age in May 2012, but her pension application was denied, resulting in a total financial loss of over 640,000 yuan in the past 13 years.

Ms. Shang Chun went into hiding in August 2008 to avoid repeated harassment by the local police. She was arrested at her rental place eight years later on June 28, 2016. After being taken to the Yingkou City Detention Center, she was forced to work without pay, mainly making products with toxic aluminum foil. Some inmates did not even stop working while having meals, or they would risk failing to finish the daily quota and being subjected to long-term standing at night and verbal abuse.

Ms. Shang was later tried by the Dashiqiao City Court, which didn’t inform her family to attend the session. She was sentenced to three years and admitted to the Shenyang City Women’s Prison. No family visited her or made cash deposits into her commissary account. It’s not clear whether the prison denied her family visits.

Ms. Shang had already reached the retirement age in May 2012, while she was still in displacement. After she was released from prison on June 28, 2019, she contacted the local social security bureau several times to start her pension payments, but was always rejected. She hasn’t received any retirement benefits to date.

Based on Ms. Shang’s service record, she is qualified for at least 4,000 yuan each month. Starting from her retirement age in May 2012, her pension has been suspended for 13 years and 5 months, for a total of 644,000 yuan, not counting the annual cost-of-living adjustment.