"402 Days for a 4,000 Won Reimbursement"... Delayed Work Injury Claims Make Ailing Teachers Suffer Twice

Claims for Work-Related Accidents Surge by 50% in 3 Years... 80% Due to Mental Health Issues
Tougher Approval Process and Delayed Reimbursements... Regional Gap Reaches 30 Percentage Points
Bottlenecks in Local Office Verification... "Urgent Nee

Due to the intensification of teacher rights violations and increased stress in educational settings, the number of educators suffering from "mental health issues" has risen sharply, resulting in a 50% increase in claims for job-related injuries (work-related injuries) over the past three years.

However, the threshold for approval of these claims has become higher, and administrative delays mean that some teachers wait hundreds of days to be reimbursed for even minor treatment costs amounting to only tens of thousands of won, effectively subjecting suffering educators to a "double burden."

According to data submitted by Assemblyman Byeongdo Han of the Democratic Party of Korea (representing Iksan, North Jeolla Province) from the National Assembly's Education Committee, based on materials from the Ministry of Personnel Management and the Government Employees Pension Service, the number of work-related injury claims made by education officers rose from 1,002 in 2022 to 1,503 in 2025, a 50% increase.

Status of Recognition of Work-Related Injuries for Education Public Officials by City and Province in 2025. Provided by the Ministry of Personnel Management

In contrast, the number of claims denied increased 2.3 times, from 128 cases in 2022 to 295 in 2025, with the approval rate dropping from 87.2% to 80.4%, a decline of 6.8 percentage points. Notably, the proportion of work-related injury claims due to "mental illness" surged. Of all such claims in 2022, mental health conditions accounted for 70.2%, but by 2025, this rose to 82.8%, meaning four out of five work-related injury claims among teachers are related to mental health issues.

On the other hand, among general diseases other than mental health conditions—such as musculoskeletal, cerebrovascular, cardiovascular diseases, and malignant tumors—the approval rate plunged from 31.6% in 2022 to 12.3% in 2025. Disparities in approval rates among regions were also significant. In 2025, approval rates by city and province show Sejong (100%) and Jeju (95.0%) were at the top, while Jeonnam (70.0%), Gyeongnam (70.6%), and Gangwon (70.8%) remained in the 70% range, resulting in a gap of up to 30.0 percentage points.

In the case of North Jeolla, the approval rate fell from 88.4% in 2022 to 76.3% in 2025, a drop of 12.1 percentage points, falling below the national average of 80.4%. Administrative processes for the reimbursement of treatment costs after work-related injury recognition are also experiencing severe delays. Non-insured medical expenses must be paid up front by teachers and then claimed from the Government Employees Pension Service. From 2022 to July 2026, a total of 4,837 cases of non-insured medical reimbursement were paid, amounting to 5.23 billion won.

Among these, 592 cases (12.2%) took more than 30 days from claim to payment decision, and there were even seven cases that took more than a year. There was also an extraordinary example where it took 402 days just to be reimbursed 4,000 won in treatment costs. The primary cause of these delays has been identified as the redundancy check procedures carried out by metropolitan and provincial offices of education.

For example, in 2026, one teacher in Daejeon claimed 58,000 won in mental health treatment costs, but it took 104 days just to confirm whether it overlapped with support from the education office's "teacher healing medical expenses" program, resulting in a total of 121 days before payment was approved. Another claim in Daejeon took 143 days due to waiting for an official response from the education office, and among the five most delayed cases in 2026, two were found to be caused by delayed verification of duplicate payments by the education office.

Assemblyman Han remarked, "The mental health of teachers is essential for a healthy educational environment, but making sick teachers wait hundreds of days to get reimbursed for even a minor treatment cost only causes them to suffer twice."

He added, "The Ministry of Education and regional education offices must immediately reform administrative procedures to prevent unnecessary delays such as duplicate payment verification. We will pursue practical support measures to enable teachers to fully focus on their educational activities and actively promote institutional improvements, such as specifying the review period for appeals in law."

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