President Lee Orders Review of Minimum Domestic-Residence Requirement for Basic Pension

[Financial News] President Lee Jae Myung instructed officials on the 3rd to review institutional improvements, including setting a minimum domestic-residence requirement for Basic Pension eligibility, to prevent foreigners from improperly receiving the benefit.
At the senior presidential aides’ meeting he chaired at Cheong Wa Dae that day, President Lee said, "There have recently been concerns about foreigners joining the National Pension Service for one month and then making retroactive contributions for 119 months to receive a pension. We are moving quickly to address these institutional shortcomings." He added, "It seems there are also quite a few cases in which people pay contributions for several months rather than just one month and then make retroactive contributions for a considerable period. We will promptly address that issue separately, but it also appears that similar concerns have been raised about the Basic Pension, which is somewhat related to it."
President Lee pointed out, "Social-security systems funded by resources jointly provided by the public must be designed with precision and fairness so that no one can gain an undue benefit and the public does not suffer unreasonable losses." He continued, "Under the current Basic Pension system, I understand that the benefit is paid as long as applicants meet requirements concerning income, assets and other factors, regardless of when they acquired citizenship."
He continued, "There is also growing debate over whether it is truly reasonable to designate someone as eligible for the Basic Pension simply because they acquired citizenship one month earlier and have poor income and asset conditions. In an extreme example, someone could live as a foreign national throughout their life, acquire citizenship late, move to Korea, and immediately receive the same Basic Pension." He stressed, "There may not be many such cases, but this is not a question of how many or how few cases there are. I believe it is a matter of principle." He also said, "The mere existence of this gap, regardless of how many actual cases there are or whether any exist, can only be perceived as unreasonable discrimination by the majority of Republic of Korea citizens who have faithfully fulfilled their tax obligations as members of the nation."
President Lee said, "According to a review of the situation worldwide, most countries that provide the Basic Pension through tax revenue require recipients to have lived in the country for a certain period. I also understand that bills similar to this have been submitted to our National Assembly." He instructed officials, "We should thoroughly examine overseas cases and domestic research findings and review institutional improvements, including setting a minimum domestic-residence period."
He also urged officials, "On this occasion, I would like us to conduct a comprehensive and thorough review of other social-security systems and government-funded programs as a whole to determine whether they contain institutional loopholes that run counter to common sense and the principles of fairness, and to make any necessary improvements."
[email protected] Choi Jong-geun Reporter