Representative Kim Won-i Proposes Partial Amendment to the National Pension Act

Basis Established for Discount Benefits on National Pension Insurance Premiums When Using Credit Card Auto-Pay

Won-i Kim, Member of the National Assembly (The Democratic Party of Korea, Mokpo-si, Jeollanam-do)

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Seo Young-seo] Kim Won-i, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea (Health and Welfare Committee, Mokpo, Jeonnam), on the 16th, took the lead in proposing the “Partial Amendment to the National Pension Act” to include credit card automatic transfers in the reduction of pension insurance premiums due to automatic transfers.

Since 2015, it has been possible to pay National Pension insurance premiums not only by “automatic account transfer” but also by “credit card.”

Despite the increasing trend of credit card automatic transfers, the current law limits the reduction of premiums due to automatic transfers only to automatic account transfers, causing issues of fairness among payers using automatic transfers.

In particular, credit card automatic transfer payers bear the payment fees due to card transactions themselves but have been excluded from the automatic transfer reduction target, causing a problem of double burden.

Kim Won-i’s amendment resolves the fairness issue among payers due to differences in payment methods by changing Article 89, Paragraph 4 of the National Pension Act from “automatic account transfer” to “automatic transfer by account or credit card,” allowing credit card automatic transfers to also receive reductions.

For reference, in the case of National Health Insurance, the law was amended last year to expand the automatic transfer reduction target to include credit cards.

Kim Won-i explained the reason for the amendment, saying, “If the amendment passes, it will not only resolve fairness among National Pension payers through the credit card automatic transfer reduction benefit but also increase payment convenience. It will also prevent overdue payments caused by insufficient bank account balances.”

The partial amendment to the National Pension Act, led by Kim Won-i, was co-sponsored by a total of 20 members, including Kim Sang-hee, In Jae-geun, Ki Dong-min, and Maeng Sung-kyu.