Rep. Kang Min-guk of People Power Party: Excessive Overpayment of Veterans' Benefits Occurs Annually

Less Than 30% Recovery Rate for Wrongful Payments Due to Administrative Errors Amid Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs' Negligence

The scale of overpayments resulting from fraudulent receipt of veterans' benefits and administrative errors by the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs has been excessively high every year, and the actual recovery performance has also been found to be poor.

According to the data titled "Overpayment and Recovery Scale of Veterans' Benefits" received by the office of National Assembly member Kang Minguk (Jinju-si-eul, Gyeongnam) from the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs, as of the end of July 2024, there were 368 cases with a cumulative overpayment amounting to 4.082 billion KRW. The problem is that the number of overpayment cases for veterans' benefits has been increasing every year.

Kang Minguk Assemblyman.

In fact, the number of cases and amounts were 124 cases (874 million KRW) in 2019, 142 cases (632 million KRW) in 2020, 254 cases (3.514 billion KRW) in 2021, 164 cases (2.423 billion KRW) in 2022, and 312 cases (1.52 billion KRW) in 2023, showing a recent increase, with last year recording the highest number in the past five years.

Furthermore, the recovery rate, i.e., the collection rate of overpaid veterans' benefits, is also low. The collection rates for overpaid veterans' benefits were 29.4% (1.03 billion KRW collected) in 2019, 20.5% (625 million KRW collected) in 2020, 20.0% (1.187 billion KRW collected) in 2021, 23.6% (1.381 billion KRW collected) in 2022, and 24.8% (1.167 billion KRW collected) in 2023, with the rate never exceeding 30% in the past five years. Moreover, as of July 2024, the collection rate is only 14.0% (571 million KRW collected).

Looking at the reasons for the cumulative scale of overpayments of veterans' benefits, fraudulent receipt accounted for 186 cases (2.683 billion KRW), administrative errors for 57 cases (642 million KRW), and others for 125 cases (757 million KRW).

Fraudulent overpayments occur when recipients receive veterans' benefits through false or other dishonest methods, making it difficult to prevent in advance. However, administrative error overpayments occur when, despite receiving information about changes in eligibility such as death, divorce, or criminal records from relevant agencies like the National Police Agency, the responsible official fails to timely exclude the individual from payment, resulting in continued disbursement of benefits. These cases can be sufficiently prevented in advance.

Kang Minguk pointed out, "The fact that overpayments of veterans' benefits due to administrative errors are occurring excessively and repeatedly every year, and that even recovery is not properly carried out, causing a loss in tax revenue, proves that the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs lacks proper improvement measures and efforts."

He added, "The Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs needs to strengthen cooperation with related agencies and establish measures such as assigning responsibility when administrative errors occur, in order to reduce the recurring overpayments of veterans' benefits."

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