(Minghui.org) Seeing that many practitioners had their retirement pension payments withheld or stopped and encountered many difficulties in protecting their rights, I would like to share how I was able to get my pension reinstated.
I was incarcerated (for practicing Falun Dafa) in a forced labor camp in 2000, and my retirement payments were stopped. After my release six months later, I was arrested and sent to a forced labor camp again. This happened three times. I asked the authorities to resume my retirement pension and return the money they withheld, but they refused. In 2007, I began writing appeal letters to request my withheld retirement pension. I didn’t go through the legal process because I didn’t know how to file a lawsuit.
I was a timid person before I began practicing Falun Dafa. I decided to write letters to expose the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) economic persecution against me so that more people would know the severity of the persecution. The letters cited the law and I also included some conversations I had with the officials I visited.
I went to the district 610 Office and met the manager of the director’s office and another person. I said I had to go out of town to find a job because they refused to resume my retirement pension and return the money they withheld while I was incarcerated. They threatened to arrest me if I left my hometown. I said that I had to eat. They said that they didn’t care and I must renounce my belief. Seeing that I wrote down their names and what they said, the office manager said he was not afraid if I sued him because he followed official policy. I asked him to show me a copy of the policy, but he refused.
I sent out nearly 80 letters, covering all relevant government units from my district, city, and province, to the central government. Not long after, my retirement payments were resumed. The authorities were afraid that the impact would go beyond their control if I sent out more letters, especially to the people whose names were on the letter. The pension office promised to return the withheld pension payments, and wrote an IOU for more than 100,000 yuan. The money was returned to me in the following months.
I was incarcerated for four years in a forced labor camp in 2008. When I was released in 2012, I visited the district 610 Office and the local Political and Legal Affairs Committee to ask for my pension. They were polite but refused to do anything. They said that they sympathized with me but they could not help as there was no policy to address this issue. I said that writing appeal letters to government officials was not my profession, but I needed my retirement payments in order to survive. I explained that I had to do this because they forced me, by withholding my pension.
I showed them a draft letter and asked if they saw anything that was not true. They couldn’t find anything untrue. I sent out dozens of letters. Soon the director of the city 610 Office informed me that the provincial leader called him and instructed him to resume my retirement payments, and that he called the district 610 Office to make sure it was done.
The district 610 Office said they couldn’t act based on a phone call, and needed a signed and stamped document from upper level authorities.
I sent out another round of appeal letters. The director of the city 610 Office told me that the provincial 610 Office had a document sent to the district office. I visited the district 610 Office. He refused again saying that the so-called document was actually my appeal letter and it was not a policy document.
I wrote more letters. Finally eight district and city government units held a joint meeting to discuss my case, including my former work unit, Political and Legal Affairs Committee, finance, and the commission for discipline inspection. In the end, they decided to pay me 980 yuan per month and split the responsibilities in case their superiors changed their minds down the road.
I didn’t accept this decision and talked to a team who was inspecting our city from the provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection. I gave them all the materials I collected and the letters I wrote. Later, a provincial leader directly instructed the city 610 Office to resume my full retirement payments. Officials at the district level said they didn’t know how my pension was reinstated.
The appeals process is also a cultivation process. Every time you ask for your pension, your sole purpose is not the money, instead it’s an opportunity for people to learn the truth about the persecution of Falun Dafa. No matter what officials tell us, we must stay focused on telling them the facts about the persecution.
It was Master who gave me courage and wisdom. It is not up to ordinary people to decide whether to reinstate my pension or not. What Master wants is to save people. So, don’t be afraid, as that’s a human notion. The more you expose what’s happening, the more the economic persecution will be eliminated, and the retirement payments will naturally be restored.
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Category: Perspectives
