"Why Work?"... Repeatedly Entering and Leaving Jobs 7 Times to Pocket Unemployment Benefits

Over the past five years, the number of repeat recipients who received unemployment benefits three or more times reached 113,000 last year.

According to data submitted by the Ministry of Employment and Labor to lawmaker Kim So-hee of the National Assembly's Climate, Energy, Environment and Labor Committee, the number of repeat recipients with three or more claims has steadily increased each year from 102,000 in 2022.

Unemployment benefits paid to these individuals approach 600 billion won annually, with the average payout per person amounting to about 5.3 million won.

The number of people who received benefits five or more times has also steadily increased since 2022, reaching 15,000 last year, and cases of a single individual collecting unemployment benefits as many as seven times were also confirmed.

In particular, the number of people who repeatedly resigned from and were re-hired by the same workplace to collect unemployment benefits has recorded in the 60,000s annually for three consecutive years.

Cases of fraudulent collection of unemployment benefits by faking contract expirations or recommended resignations in terms of procedure are also continuing to occur.

Organized crimes were also uncovered in which recipients colluded with employers while receiving unemployment benefits to receive wages in cash rather than bank transfers, or mobilized brokers to recruit fake workers and pocket hundreds of millions of won in unemployment benefits.

Under the current law, if fraudulent collection is uncovered, additional collections of up to five times the amount can be imposed, along with criminal punishment such as up to five years in prison or a fine of up to 50 million won, but instances of abuse continue to grow.

Critics point out that since simple monitoring alone makes it difficult to prevent fraudulent collection of unemployment benefits through short-term employment and resignation, fundamental institutional improvements are needed, such as further strengthening the current subscription requirement, which is merely 180 days.

Reported by Lee Hyeon-yeong | Video by Ahn Jun-hyeok | Graphics by Yang Hye-min | Produced by SBS Digital News
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.