It has been revealed that more than 1.5 million workers are suffering losses in their subscription periods because their workplaces failed to properly pay National Pension premiums, despite the amounts being deducted from their monthly salaries every month.
According to data provided by the National Pension Service to Representative So Byung-hun of the Democratic Party of Korea, a member of the National Health and Welfare Committee, as of September of this year, the number of subscribers who could not fully recognize their subscription periods due to unpaid company insurance premiums stood at 1,503,427, with the average unpaid period per person being approximately 7 months.
To receive a monthly National Pension in retirement, one must have a subscription period of 10 years or more. However, if a workplace is in arrears with its insurance premiums, the actual period worked may not be fully recognized as a subscription period.
It was tallied that 134,616 subscribers would meet the 10-year requirement if their actual workplace unpaid periods were added, and among them, 20,982 were aged 60 or older.
The problem is that even though the responsibility for paying insurance premiums lies with the business owner, workers can end up bearing the loss of the subscription period caused by the arrears.
If a company falls into arrears on insurance premiums, even if a worker directly pays the portion of the premiums they are supposed to shoulder, only a part of the entire unpaid period may be recognized as a subscription period. Furthermore, to have the entire unpaid period recognized, workers may sometimes even have to pay the insurance premiums that should be borne by the business owner.
The National Pension Service explained, "We fully sympathize with the need to rescue workers who have suffered disadvantages despite having contributions deducted from their salaries due to employer arrears," while adding, "Regarding plans to recognize the unpaid insurance premium periods as subscription periods, cautious review is necessary due to reasons such as financial burdens and fairness."
(Reported by Park Se-won | Video by Kim Hye-joo | Graphics by Yook Do-hyun | Produced by SBS Digital News)
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