Korea to crack down on foreigners collecting national pension after brief enrollment

The Ministry of Health and Welfare and the National Pension Service announced Tuesday they will tighten rules governing catch-up premium contributions by foreign nationals, after repeated cases emerged of foreigners collecting national pension benefits despite only brief enrollment periods.

Under the reforms, the government will verify actual domestic residency when foreign nationals apply to make retroactive premium payments — known as catch-up contributions — and will subject supporting documents to stricter scrutiny. It also plans to amend relevant laws to extend the reciprocity principle, currently applied only to pension enrollment and lump-sum refund payments, to catch-up contributions as well.

As a first step, the National Pension Service revised its internal guidelines to redefine the "domestic residency period" — one of the eligibility requirements for foreign nationals seeking catch-up contributions — as actual physical residence in Korea, rather than the period of alien registration or maintenance of residency status. The change took effect Monday.

Going forward, foreign nationals will not be able to apply for catch-up contributions covering periods when they were not physically residing in Korea, and document screening will be significantly stricter. Applicants must submit immigration records in addition to proof of marital status. Only months in which the applicant was present in Korea for at least 15 days — counted from the month of entry to the month of departure as shown on the immigration certificate — will count toward the recognized residency period.

Through the planned legislative amendment, the government will also apply the reciprocity principle to catch-up contributions, limiting eligibility to nationals of countries that allow Korean residents abroad to make equivalent catch-up contributions to their own pension systems.

The government will also strengthen oversight of overseas pension recipients by doubling the frequency of survival verification checks from once to twice a year, while continuing to review the national pension system as a whole, including dependent family pension benefits.

"The national pension is a system designed to secure retirement income for people residing in Korea," Minister of Health and Welfare Jeong Eun-kyeong said. "We will do everything possible to prevent abuse, such as cases where people receive pension benefits after only a short stay in the country."