Over 400,000 People Now Receive More Than 1 Million Won Monthly from National Pension

The maximum monthly receipt is 2.4 million won... Total payment of 82.55 million won

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Chun-hee] The number of National Pension recipients receiving old-age pensions of 1 million won or more exceeded 400,000 last year.

The National Pension Service disclosed the '2021 National Pension Recipient Statistics' containing this information on the 16th. According to the data, as of the end of last year, there were 430,531 recipients receiving monthly old-age pensions of 1 million won or more. Recipients receiving over 1 million won first appeared in 2007 and surpassed 100,000 in 2016. The growth rate has accelerated, exceeding 300,000 in 2020 and surpassing 400,000 again within a year. The number of recipients receiving over 2 million won monthly also increased more than threefold from 437 in 2020 to 1,356 last year.

The total number of people who received National Pension payments last year was 6,070,124, with a total payout of 29.136791 trillion won. Among them, 5,864,373 were pension recipients, most of whom were old-age pension recipients (4,894,452).

The highest National Pension recipient is an old-age pension recipient receiving 2,399,710 won monthly. Mr. A, aged 66, paid a total of 82.55 million won in pension premiums over 347 months from 1988 to November 2016 and, after deferring for five years, now receives a monthly old-age pension of 2.4 million won. He will receive an amount exceeding his total contributions in just 35 months, less than three years.

Additionally, the highest disability pension was 1.725 million won, and the highest survivor's pension was 1.194 million won. The highest combined pension amount for a couple was 4.354 million won. The husband, after 306 months of contributions and a five-year deferral, receives 2.13 million won monthly, while the wife, after 322 months of contributions and the same five-year deferral, receives 2.224 million won monthly.

There were 117 pension recipients aged 100 or older, with women accounting for 77.8% (91 people). The oldest recipient was a 108-year-old woman who has been receiving a survivor's pension since 1994 after the death of her child who was a National Pension contributor. The oldest old-age pension recipient was 93 years old, and the oldest disability pension recipient was 91 years old.

As of the end of last year, there were 4,137,000 recipients aged 65 or older, accounting for 46.7% of the total population aged 65 and above. By city and province, Ulsan had the highest rate at 51.7%, followed by Gyeongbuk, Jeonnam, Jeju, and Gyeongnam. The metropolitan area with the lowest recipient rate was Gangwon at 43.0%.

The number of recipients aged 62 or older, the current pension eligibility age, was 5,409,000 as of the end of last year, accounting for 48.3% of the total population aged 62 and above. The ratio of recipients to the population above the pension eligibility age has steadily increased from 42.5% in 2018 to 44.1% in 2019 and 46% in 2020.

Meanwhile, the Service achieved fund operation earnings of 91.2 trillion won last year. This is the highest earnings ever, equivalent to 3.1 years of annual pension payments of 29.1 trillion won and 1.7 years of premium income of 53.5 trillion won. In terms of yield, it achieved the second-highest ever at 10.8%, following 11.3% in 2019.

Kim Yong-jin, Director of the National Pension Service, said, “As we have achieved record-high fund operation earnings, we will continue to manage the valuable assets of the people systematically and stably. All employees of the Service will do their best in 2022 to ensure that the National Pension becomes a pension for all citizens that brings happiness to the people.”