500 Million National Pension Recipients Era... 98 People Receiving Over 2 Million Won

Kang Sin-bok, Director of Pension Benefits at the National Pension Service (left in the photo), beneficiary Myung Jeong-hee, and Kim Jeong-hak, Head of the Daejeon Regional Headquarters of the National Pension Service, are photographed after the commemorative event on the 20th.

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Dae-yeol] The number of National Pension recipients has surpassed 5 million this month. It has been 33 years since the system was implemented.

According to the National Pension Service on the 23rd, the number of recipients has increased by 1 million every 4 to 5 years since it first exceeded 1 million in 2003. It surpassed 2 million in 2007, 3 million in 2012, and 4 million in 2016. This figure excludes those whose entitlement ended due to death during pension receipt.

The pace of increase in recipients has accelerated recently. It took 4 years and 8 months for the number of recipients to grow from 3 million to 4 million, but only 3 years and 6 months to surpass 5 million. The Service expects the number to reach 7 million in 5 years, coinciding with the retirement of the baby boom generation.

On the 20th, the Service presented the 5 millionth recipient, Myung Jeong-hee (62), with a pension certificate and commemorative gifts. Ms. Myung joined in 1988 and paid 48.17 million KRW over 32 years and 3 months. She will receive a monthly pension of 1.24 million KRW going forward. Park Jeong-bae, Acting Director of the National Pension Service, said, "We will do our best to operate the National Pension system to help stabilize the public’s retirement life."

Meanwhile, according to the Service, the total number of recipients last year was 4.96 million, with payments amounting to 21.7 trillion KRW. There were 270,000 recipients receiving more than 1 million KRW per month, and 98 receiving over 2 million KRW. Among recipients who have been enrolled for over 20 years, totaling 670,000, the average pension amount was about 920,000 KRW. The highest combined pension amount for couples is 3.64 million KRW per month, and the highest individual amount is 2.12 million KRW.

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