Monthly average entitlement of national pension plan stands at 330,000 won

People subscribed with national pension plan for 20 years and longer are entitled with a monthly average of 871,870 Korean won (approx. 800 U.S. dollars). The monthly average amount of the entire beneficiaries, however, turned out to be 325,130 won (approx. 298 dollars), merely a half of the minimum cost of living of 617,281 won (approx. 567 dollars).

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On Friday, the National Pension Service revealed an official statistics about national pension plan (as of the end of February). The reason the average pension payment of the entire beneficiaries is much lower than the payment for those with 20-year and longer pension plan is because of beneficiaries with special pension plan.

In an effort to advertise the intent of national pension plan when it was first introduced in 1988, the special pension plan was conceived to give benefits for those who have been insured for five to nine years. Currently, only people with 10-years and longer plan are entitled with the payment.

Of the entire 2.9 million beneficiaries, a little more than half or some 1.5 million people are with special pension plan, said sources from the National Pension Service. They are paid with relatively smaller amount and that brought down the average entitlement of the entire beneficiaries. The National Pension Service expected that the entire average entitlement would go up since the term of policy is getting longer as the scheme of pension plan becomes more matured.

According to the official statistics, senior citizens with the plan are paid with an average of 336,680 won (approx. 309 dollars), the disabled with 424,850 won (approx. 390 dollars) and bereaved family with 253,820 won (approx. 233 dollars). As of the end of February, 21,238,612 people are covered by the plan and the total amount of fund amounts to 482 trillion won (approx. 442 billion dollars).