100,000 Pensioners Who Had Benefits Cut Due to Income to Receive 600,000 Won on Average

[Anchor]

I am here with reporter Han Ji-yeon for Wednesday's Friendly Economy. Reporter Han, is it true that seniors who work while receiving the national pension might get some money back?

[Reporter]

About 100,000 people who had their pensions cut last year due to their income will receive an average of 600,000 won back at the end of next month.

This is because the reduction criteria for the national pension are being eased starting today (June 17), allowing them to get back the pension amount that was cut.

Just because someone receives the national pension does not mean they stop working entirely.

There are quite a few people who continue to work at a job or run a shop even after reaching retirement age.

Until now, if earned income or business income exceeded a certain level, a portion of the national pension was cut before being paid out.

However, reflecting the reality that more people continue to work in their later years, the government decided to ease this reduction standard, and those whose pensions were reduced last year due to their income will have their benefits recalculated under the new criteria.

How can you receive it? No separate application is required.

The National Pension Service (NPS) will verify data from the National Tax Service (NTS) and distribute the payments sequentially starting at the end of next month.

However, those who say, "I cannot wait until the end of next month. I want to check sooner," can directly submit their tax documents to the NPS.

In addition, as they are excluded from the reduction list, they can also receive the dependent pension benefits that they had previously missed out on.

If they have a spouse, parents, or children, the refund amount could increase slightly.

[Anchor]

You just mentioned that payments will start at the end of next month, but it is written here that the benefits have already begun.

[Reporter]

This part can be a bit confusing.

Although the law takes effect today, the new standards are already being applied starting this year.

Originally, the pension began to be cut if a recipient's income exceeded the average income of all national pension subscribers over the past three years, the so-called "Value A."

Now, they have decided not to cut the pension up to Value A plus 2 million won, adding an extra 2 million won to Value A.

Since Value A changes every year, the standard also changes annually.

For this year, Value A—meaning the average income of all subscribers over the past three years—is 3.19 million won.

Adding 2 million won to this, the threshold has been raised to 5.19 million won.

For example, if someone's monthly income is around 4.1 million won, they would have been subject to a reduction under the old standard, but now they will receive their pension in full without any cuts.

However, this bill already passed the National Assembly in November of last year, and it was decided that the application would start with last year's income.

Therefore, ahead of the official implementation of the law, the raised standard has already been applied to 2026 income starting this past January.

Instead of cutting the pension first and then refunding it, they stopped the reductions from the very beginning.

As a result, reductions were already halted for 90,000 people as of this past May, and the additional pension they received reached 19.5 billion won.

On an individual basis, this calculates to about 50,000 won more per month.

[Anchor]

Lastly, how are internet-only banks participating in blocking debt-fueled investing?

[Reporter]

The three internet-only banks—KakaoBank, Toss Bank, and Kbank—are raising their lending thresholds all at once.

With the recent strength in the domestic stock market, debt-fueled investing has been on the rise.

The Financial Services Commission (FSC) activated an emergency management system for household debt on June 11 to manage loans.

When the FSC announced it would conduct intensive weekly inspections of financial institutions that fail to meet their targets, commercial banks immediately restricted loan limits and reduced preferential interest rates starting the very next day, and internet-only banks have now joined in.

Starting on June 22, KakaoBank will reduce the maximum limit on overdraft accounts from the current 240 million won to 100 million won.

In addition, conditions will become much stricter when renewing overdraft accounts with a limit of 50 million won or more.

For accounts that have used 20% or less of their limit over the past six months, the limit will be cut by up to an additional 20% upon renewal.

The aim is to reduce the actual funds that could be used for debt-fueled investing by cutting even unused loan limits.

Toss Bank will also significantly tighten its limits soon.

Unsecured credit loans will be reduced from 300 million won to 100 million won, and overdraft limits will drop from 150 million won to 50 million won.

Kbank will completely suspend the sale of new overdraft accounts until the end of next month.

In the future, whether for stock investment or living expenses, getting a loan will be more difficult for the time being.
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.