Reviewing 'Reciprocity' for Foreigners’ Retroactive National Pension Contributions... Discussing Residency Requirements for Basic Pension

Ministry Launches Social Security Fairness Review and Improvement Task Force
Comprehensive Review of Social Insurance and Social Security Benefits
Focus on Loopholes, Evasion, Circumvention, and Recurring Civil Complaints

The government is reviewing measures to revise the post-payment (retroactive contribution) system of the National Pension Service for foreigners, as well as the eligibility requirements for basic pension recipients such as dual nationals.

Jung Eunkyung, Minister of Health and Welfare, is speaking at the "1st Task Force Meeting for Normalization in the Health and Welfare Sector" held on May 7 at Conference House Dalgabi in Jung-gu, Seoul. Ministry of Health and Welfare

The Ministry of Health and Welfare announced on the 16th that it held the second meeting of the 'Task Force for Normalization of the Health and Welfare Sector' and the first meeting of the 'Task Force for Fairness Review and Improvement of Social Security Systems' at Conference House Dalgabi in Jung-gu, Seoul, where these initiatives were discussed.

The ministry has determined that, due to recent changes in social structure such as an increase in foreigners and dual nationals, there are cases in which the existing social security system is out of step with public sentiment. Therefore, it plans to systematically conduct an internal review of major systems such as social insurance and social security benefits.

The newly established task force is headed by Minister of Health and Welfare Jung Eunkyung and consists of six teams: general affairs, communications, social welfare, population and social services, healthcare, and essential regional public services. In addition, a consultative body for system improvement will be formed with representatives responsible for operations and civil complaints from major affiliated organizations.

In particular, the task force will focus on examining loopholes, circumventions, unfair gains, and recurring civil complaint cases in the systems, by considering tasks identified in the National Normalization Project as well as proposals from on-site staff at affiliated organizations.

At the meeting, the application of the principle of reciprocity—currently applied to the mandatory enrollment of foreigners in the National Pension Service and in the lump-sum refund system—was discussed for retroactive contributions as well. At present, the National Pension Service allows foreigners to use the post-payment system under the same conditions as Korean nationals; however, according to the ministry, in many cases, the home countries of these foreign beneficiaries do not operate such a system, resulting in situations where Korean nationals cannot receive similar post-payment benefits overseas.

Accordingly, the ministry discussed restricting retroactive contributions for nationals of countries that do not allow Koreans to make retroactive pension payments in their own country.

The ministry also discussed imposing a requirement for a certain period of actual residence in Korea for basic pension eligibility for dual nationals and others who have lived abroad for a long time but then return to reside in Korea, in order to address fairness issues with citizens who have consistently resided and paid taxes in Korea.

Based on these discussions, the ministry plans to supplement its initiatives by incorporating expert opinions, after which it will consult with related departments such as the Office for Government Policy Coordination to finalize the second round of normalization tasks for the health and welfare sector. For issues that can be addressed with internal guidelines, improvements will be made immediately; for those requiring amendments to enforcement decrees and other laws, the goal is to complete the revisions within this year.

Minister Jung Eunkyung stated, “We will thoroughly review the system once again to ensure that there are no loopholes contrary to common sense and the principle of fairness,” and added, “We will strive to improve the social security system to be more precise and fair in accordance with public expectations.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.