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

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 pension following her husband's death, but none of the amount has been recovered yet.

This fact was confirmed through data received from the National Pension Service and other organizations by Representative Kim Gyo-heung of the Democratic Party of Korea, a member of the National Assembly's Health and Welfare Committee, today (the 11th).

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

Following the Supreme Court ruling in 2023, the National Pension Service revoked Lee's right to receive the survivor's pension for intentionally causing her husband's death, but has not been able to recover the previously paid pension.

The National Pension Service explained, "As Lee, the person obligated to pay, has been incarcerated for a long time, no assets under her name have been identified, making recovery through seizure or compulsory execution difficult."

The National Pension Service pays a survivor's pension to the bereaved family when a person who meets certain requirements—such as an old-age pension recipient, a subscriber with a subscription period of 10 years or more, or a former subscriber—passes away.

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

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

In fact, there is a case where someone faked the death of a spouse who left the country in 2001, fraudulently collected about 96 million won in survivor's pensions for 22 years, and was caught when the spouse returned to the country.

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

(Photo: Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.