An Era of 10,000 Foreigners Receiving Elderly Pensions... Chinese Make Up More Than Half

Foreign Payouts of Approximately 26.8 Billion KRW in the First Half of the Year
Foreign Subscribers Increase by 40% Over 5 Years

The number of foreigners receiving old-age pensions has exceeded 10,000 for the first time. More than half of them were Chinese.

On the 21st, Kim Mi-ae, a member of the People Power Party, analyzed data submitted by the National Pension Service and found that as of the end of June this year, the number of foreigners receiving old-age pensions was 10,410. The amount paid to them during the first half of the year was 26.788 billion KRW. The old-age pension is a monthly lifelong pension paid to those who have been enrolled in the National Pension for more than 10 years (120 months) and have reached the eligible age for benefits.

Seoul Seodaemun-gu National Pension Service Seoul Northern Regional Office.
[Photo by Yonhap News]

By nationality, Chinese recipients were the largest group with 5,571 people, accounting for 53.5% of the total, receiving 10.17 billion KRW. On average, each Chinese recipient received about 1.81 million KRW during the first half of the year (approximately 300,000 KRW per month). Next were Americans with 2,276 people (21.9%), receiving 8.179 billion KRW (3.59 million KRW per person). Following them were Canadians with 867 people (8.3%) receiving 3.43 billion KRW (3.96 million KRW per person), Taiwanese with 585 people (5.6%) receiving 1.894 billion KRW (3.24 million KRW per person), and Japanese with 426 people (4.1%) receiving 1.147 billion KRW (2.69 million KRW per person).

As of June this year, the total number of foreign National Pension subscribers was 455,839. This number has been steadily increasing every year, rising by more than 40% over five years compared to 321,948 in 2019. Among subscribers, Chinese nationals were the largest group with 194,421 people (42.6%), followed by Southeast Asian nationals such as Vietnamese (48,590) and Indonesians (31,349). Vietnam and Cambodia were recently designated as countries eligible for workplace subscription, and the number of foreign subscribers from these nationalities increased by more than 10% within half a year.

There were also 4,020 foreigners receiving survivor pensions, which are paid to spouses when old-age pension recipients pass away. The total amount paid to them during the first half of this year was 8.112 billion KRW. Among survivor pension recipients, Chinese were the largest group with 1,701 people (42.3%), receiving a total of 2.874 billion KRW. This means each person received about 1.69 million KRW over six months. Next were Vietnamese with 473 people (11.8%) receiving 1.016 billion KRW (2.15 million KRW per person), Americans with 434 people (10.8%) receiving 1.236 billion KRW (2.85 million KRW per person), Japanese with 359 people (8.9%) receiving 725 million KRW (2.02 million KRW per person), and Filipinos with 220 people (5.5%) receiving 448 million KRW (2.04 million KRW per person).