Disability Pension Denied Due to Medical History... Court Says "Main Cause and Timing Must Be Considered"

The court ruled that disability pensions must be determined by clearly examining the cause of the disability and the time it occurred.

Seoul Administrative Court, Seocho-gu, Seoul. / Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

According to the legal community on the 30th, the Administrative Division 5 of the Seoul Administrative Court (Chief Judge Kim Sun-yeol) recently ruled in favor of Mr. A in the first trial of the lawsuit against the National Pension Service seeking cancellation of the refusal to pay the disability pension.

Previously, Mr. A joined the National Pension in 1999. He was registered as a Grade 3 mental disability under the Disabled Welfare Act in 2018. In February 2020, Mr. A claimed a disability pension from the Service, stating that his disability was influenced by schizophrenia. Since the initial diagnosis date of schizophrenia was July 2015, after joining the National Pension, he argued that he had the right to receive the disability pension. According to relevant laws, if a disability is caused by a disease that occurred while enrolled in the National Pension, the disability pension can be received as long as the disability continues.

However, the Service judged the cause of Mr. A’s disability to be depression, not schizophrenia, and refused to pay the disability pension. The reason was that Mr. A had received treatment for depressive symptoms before joining the pension. Mr. A filed an appeal lawsuit, stating, "The mental disability originated from schizophrenia. The initial diagnosis date of schizophrenia was after joining the National Pension."

The first trial court ruled that Mr. A is indeed entitled to receive the disability pension. The court stated, "The court-appointed expert and the doctors who directly treated Mr. A clearly diagnosed that the disease causing the mental disability was schizophrenia, not depression," and "there is no evidence to overturn their objective judgment."

Furthermore, the court added, "Even if Mr. A’s schizophrenia occurred before joining the National Pension, the initial diagnosis date was July 2015, during enrollment," and "there is no circumstance to believe that Mr. A was aware of the onset of schizophrenia at the time of joining the National Pension."

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