6,100 people with disabilities died without ever receiving an old-age pension after paying into the National Pension for more than 10 years... “A harsh blind spot”

[Financial News]  It has emerged that 6,100 people with disabilities died over the past five years without ever receiving an old-age pension, despite paying National Pension contributions for more than 10 years.

According to Yonhap News on the 13th, data provided by the National Pension Service to So Byung-hun of the Democratic Party of Korea, a member of the National Assembly’s Health and Welfare Committee, showed that a total of 13,263 registered people with disabilities died over the past five years before reaching the age of eligibility for the old-age pension. By degree of disability, 8,731 of those who died had severe disabilities, about twice the 4,532 with mild disabilities. 
Of these, 6,100 people—46.0% of the total—had completed the minimum contribution period required to qualify for a pension, 10 years (120 months), but died without receiving an old-age pension even once because they had not reached the eligible age.
Of those 6,100 people, excluding cases in which the benefit was converted to a survivors’ pension after death, 1,053 have not even filed a claim for benefits yet.
People with severe disabilities faced relatively poorer conditions for enrollment. According to the National Pension Service, as of June this year, the average contribution period for members with severe disabilities was 104 months (about 8.6 years), below the minimum required for an old-age pension: 120 months (10 years). Their average standard monthly income was also just 1,714,460 won, or 62% of the 2,762,349 won for people with mild disabilities.

The current National Pension Act includes a special provision allowing “workers in special occupations,” such as coal miners and seafarers who work in harsh conditions, to receive the old-age pension five years earlier than ordinary contributors (at age 58 this year), taking into account physical aging and the nature of their work. However, this provision does not apply to people with severe disabilities.
The National Pension Service noted that it had received too few requests for simulations or financial projections on measures such as lowering the age at which people with severe or developmental disabilities can begin receiving benefits.
Assemblyman So stressed, “Applying the same eligibility-age standard to people with severe or developmental disabilities, whose average life expectancy is significantly shorter than that of people without disabilities and who experience physical decline earlier, is not equality but leaving them in a harsh blind spot,” adding, “The National Pension Service must no longer turn a blind eye to the reality that thousands of people with disabilities pass away without ever receiving old-age security from the state, despite paying contributions for more than 10 years.”
He added, “The principle of applying the special-occupation provisions by analogy, as recognized for mine workers and others, should also be applied to people with severe disabilities to bring forward the age at which they can begin receiving benefits.”
[email protected] Kim Su-yeon Reporter