Korea’s National Pension Service (NPS) is under fire for poor management of taxpayers’ money after it was found to have provided pensions worth $51.3 million to unqualified people between 2009 and June this year

August 14, 2013 Leave a comment

2013-08-13 16:42

NPS hit for mismanaging pensions

By Yi Whan-woo
The National Pension Service (NPS) is under fire for poor management of taxpayers’ money after it was found to have provided pensions worth 57.2 billion won ($51.3 million) to unqualified people between 2009 and June this year. According to data released by Shin Yee-jin of the ruling Saenuri Party, the country’s pension fund operator supplied that amount of pension to people not entitled to that money, including missing persons and the dead.Of the 83,180 cases reported, 3,662 of them are related to scams in the survivors’ pension programs. It allows monthly pension to the surviving family members such as spouses, children and parents of a deceased contributor.
Some 11,651 other cases are related to the elderly pension that is paid to senior citizens. Even after they pass away, their family members deliberately refrain from reporting their deaths, thus making illicit gains worth 8.58 billion won.
The NPS has tried to retrieve the money but the outstanding amount remains at 4.49 billion won.
“The government should overhaul the pension system to prevent unqualified people from receiving pension benefits,” Shin said.
“It should collaborate with heath insurance service agencies to check the status of the recipients on a regular basis and make sure whether they are qualified to receive the pension.”
The lawmaker’s disclosure came after a rising concern over flaws in the pension system. It is speculated that future generations will pay more pension premiums but receive fewer benefits than their parents or grandparents before 2059 when the fund is anticipated to be depleted due to aging demographics and falling working age population.
Shin said the data was compiled by the NPS to figure out and retrieve the amount of payments involved in the pension benefit fraud cases.

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