Received 13 Million Won After Husband's Death, But Not a Single Won Recovered

▲ Lee Eun-hae enters the Incheon District Court for her pre-trial detention hearing on April 19, 2022.

It has been revealed that Lee Eun-hae, who was sentenced to life imprisonment for the Gapyeong valley murder, received 13 million won in survivor's pensions after her husband's death, but none of the amount has been recovered so far.

This fact was confirmed in data obtained from the National Pension Service and other organizations by lawmaker Kim Gyo-heung of the Democratic Party of Korea, who sits on the National Assembly's Health and Welfare Committee.

It was found that Lee applied for survivor's pensions after causing the death of her husband in 2019, receiving about 13 million won over 28 months at 460,000 won per month.

The National Pension Service subsequently revoked Lee's right to receive the survivor's pension following the Supreme Court ruling in 2023 that she intentionally caused her husband's death, but has failed to recover the pensions paid out during that time.

The service explained, "As Lee, who is obligated to pay, has been imprisoned for a long period, no assets under her name have been identified, making recovery through seizure or compulsory execution difficult."

The National Pension Service pays pensions to the survivors when a person who meets certain requirements—such as a recipient of an old-age pension, a subscriber with a subscription period of 10 years or more, or a former subscriber—dies.

However, survivor's pensions received by intentionally causing the death of a subscriber or former subscriber, or received through fraudulent methods, must be fully recovered.

The problem is that over the past five years, there have been 34 cases of fraudulent receipt of survivor's pensions, amounting to 400 million won, but the amount actually recovered is only 230 million won, accounting for a mere 56.3% of the total.

In fact, there was a case where a person fabricated the death of a spouse who left the country in 2001, fraudulently receiving about 96 million won in survivor's pensions for 22 years before being caught when the spouse returned to the country.

Lawmaker Kim Gyo-heung emphasized, "The amount of fraudulent survivor's pensions reached 400 million won over five years, and apart from this, there are even more cases of fraudulent receipt of national pensions through other methods, such as concealing the fact of death. We must track down fraudulent recipients to the end and recover all funds so that subscribers who faithfully pay their insurance premiums do not suffer losses."

(Photo: Yonhap News)

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