You're single and pregnant? Now you can claim maternity benefits
A healthcare security official issued a statement on maternity benefits for unmarried mothers this week. It quickly attracted tens of millions of viewers on Weibo within a day.
The statement and reaction underscore two trends: the government's drive to increase the birth rate in an aging society and the crusade by women's rights groups to liberalize the treatment of single women.
"Unmarried mothers don't need to submit a marriage certificate to claim a maternity allowance," said Liu Juan, an official with the National Healthcare Security Administration.
Liu told a news briefing on Wednesday. At the briefing, national health commission officials explained different aspects of a new guideline that supports government policies to create a "fertility-friendly society" as the nation tackles a growing population imbalance.
Making maternity benefits more inclusive is one such policy under the new guideline.
Online, many netizens hailed the news, saying that single women who want children will no longer face a bureaucratic stigma. Others, however, worried that relaxed stance may discourage women from getting married if they fall pregnant.
The new guideline covers a range of new policies covering finance, taxation, housing, employment and other regulations, jointly issued by 17 government departments.
It also states that policies related to payment of maternity insurance and allowances will be unified at the national level.
According to the Xinhua news agency, 240 million people were covered by maternity insurance as of 2021, 50 percent higher than in 2012.
Liu cited China's Social Insurance Law as the legal basis for ruling that marriage licenses or divorce decrees should not be prerequisites to claiming the benefits. Many legal experts have argued that mothers, whether married or unmarried, are never differentiated in any laws, nor are children born in or out of wedlock.
In practice, local procedures for claiming maternity benefits have differed.
Many provinces still retain clauses that require an applicant to be vetted for adhering to family-planning policy. That evaluation usually requires a marriage or divorce certificate.
In a sense, such practices are a throwback to China's now-abolished one-child policy. Many authorities have interpreted regulations to mean that having a child with only one parent violated family-planning policies.
The one-child policy has since been scrapped, with families allowed to have three children. In effect, they are now allowed to have as many children as they want without penalties.
Public opinion about unmarried mothers has also gradually changed in recent years.
"I had never even thought about claiming maternity benefits," said unmarried Tracy Lin, 42, who has a seven-year-old son. "Nobody told me I couldn't. I just assumed that was the case since was I was single."
Lin told Shanghai Daily she is not ashamed of being an unmarried parent.
"But I suppose subconsciously I felt it wasn't something to be proud of," she said.
Actually, Lin was ineligible for maternity benefits when she gave birth to her son in 2015.
In 2019, nearly 9.9 million women were covered by maternity insurance in Shanghai and over 177,000 women claimed an average 40,800 yuan (US$5,993) in payments.
In late 2017, a single woman in Shanghai brought China's first legal case claiming the right to maternity benefits.
Over the course of nearly three years, she took various local administrations to court, including the Shanghai Social Insurance Management Center, and failed in all her efforts. In 2020, the Shanghai High People's Court ruled against her.
The woman told Chinese media that various judges in her case expressed sympathy and understanding for her plight. One judge even asked the management center whether the case could be settled out of court, but that idea was rejected.
A few months later, Shanghai scrapped its requirement that a family-planning evaluation had to be conducted prior to receiving maternity benefits. The new regime came into effect in January 2021.
The plaintiff told local media she finally received her benefits after the policy change.
There has been rapid development in women's education and in women's careers in China. As a direct result, there are more single women in Chinese cities who are willing to bear children outside of marriage.
Huang Xihua, National People's Congress deputy
In 2021, an unmarried mother in the southern city of Shenzhen filed a similar lawsuit, and the case was settled out of court, with the judge's help. It resulted in the mother receiving her benefits.
In recent years, this issue has been raised by lawmakers and political advisers at both regional and national sessions.
This year, National People's Congress deputy Huang Xihua proposed that government departments should enact policies giving single women the same rights to maternity benefits as married women.
"There has been rapid development in women's education and in women's careers in China," she told Chinese media in March. "As a direct result, there are more single women in Chinese cities who are willing to bear children outside of marriage."
Liz Wang, 35, is one such woman. She had her eggs frozen in Thailand when she realized that marriage and children weren't part of her "five-year plan."
"It doesn't mean that I don't want to get married or have children," she explained. "I just don't want the 'ticking clock' to influence my decision-making."
She added, "The era of women having to sacrifice for family is gone. Whether to make that sacrifice is a personal choice, not a matter of social pressure. I chose not to. So maybe I will skip marriage and fast forward to just having babies."
Wang had her eggs frozen offshore because of prohibitions on single women freezing their eggs in China. That, too, has been challenged in court.
"Many family-related matters in China are rooted in the past and have not kept up with rapidly changing social norms," said Jason Yao, a retired law professor. "But it's obvious that authorities are cautiously catching up."
The lag can create confusion.
An unmarried woman surnamed Chen found that out when trying to claim maternity benefits.
"Words in small circles say I can claim benefits in Shanghai, but it's difficult to find the exact policies because it's not widely reported," she said, "and when I first called the social insurance management center, I couldn't get a definitive response. Eventually I did get my allowance, thanks to advice from other unmarried mothers, but this is all so confusing."
According to application guidelines posted on the municipal government's website, marriage or divorce certificates are not necessary in applying for maternity benefits. It is also no longer required to produce an ID or residency permit for both parents.
Many young mothers are now applying for benefits through a municipal app that claims to reduce red tape. But when a Shanghai Daily reporter tried the app, she was stuck at the first step – a requirement to provide the father's ID with electronic authorization from the father.
"I guess it's better than nothing," said Wang, who may want to claim the benefits in the future. "At least I feel more relaxed now knowing that it can be done."
