Pension Photo: IC

A woman in Shanghai was recently found to have hidden her husband's death for over six years and continued to collect his pension during that time, leaving the man's body unclaimed in a hospital morgue, KNews reported.

The husband, surnamed Zhong, suffered hemiplegia after passing out at home in December 2009, reports said. He was later abandoned by his family in the hospital and passed away in August 2015.

His death did not come to light until the recent national population census. A staff member from the local residents' committee told media that his widow, surnamed Qian, had refused to sign the census form and claimed her husband was living in a nursing home.

Qian denied the claim, arguing that she had told the committee her husband had gone missing and she had been looking for him all this time. 

When asked why she didn't report to local police to write off her husband's residence status after his death, Qian claimed that she did not know she had died.

A staff member from the local hospital told the media that they have been trying to contact Zhong's wife and daughter but failed. Zhong's body has been in the hospital's morgue for over six years.

Qian had been collecting the pension every month after Zhong's death, totaling over 270,000 yuan ($42,336), the police found.

Qian will be charged with fraud and abandonment by the local procuratorate.