"Gyeongnam Provincial Residents' Pension" Sees Overwhelming Demand ... Early Closure Just Three Days After Launch

The "Gyeongnam Provincial Residents' Pension," the first of its kind in the nation, was launched by Gyeongsangnam-do to help residents fill income gaps and prepare for retirement. On its first day, the program saw an overwhelming number of applicants, leading to an early closure just three days after launch.

Gyeongsangnam-do announced that applications for the Gyeongnam Provincial Residents' Pension, which began at 10 a.m. on January 19, reached the recruitment target of 10,000 people by 12:21 p.m. on January 21 and were subsequently closed.

Applications were accepted through the Gyeongnam Provincial Residents' Pension Website, targeting residents born between 1971 and 1985, with quotas allocated according to the population ratio of each of the province's 18 cities and counties.

There was an explosion of applicants from the very first day. As soon as recruitment began, a surge of simultaneous applications caused delays in website access and processing. An emergency inspection of the website was conducted from 4 p.m., and after system improvements and procedural changes, normal application processing resumed from the second day.

The province plans to review each applicant to determine eligibility for enrollment.

Once applicants receive notification of "enrollment completed" following the review, they must open an individual IRP account at either NH Nonghyup Bank or BNK Gyeongnam Bank by February 28.

Gyeongsangnam-do will conduct an additional recruitment in early March for as many people as are found ineligible or who fail to open an account within the deadline.

This year’s 10,000 enrollees will be eligible to apply for pension benefits after five years from their first contribution and upon reaching the age of 55.

Gyeongnam Provincial Pension Website.

The Gyeongnam Provincial Residents' Pension is a livelihood stabilization policy designed and implemented directly by Gyeongsangnam-do for people in their 40s and 50s. It aims to support residents during the income gap period between retirement and the start of public pension benefits, and to help them prepare for old age. This is the first policy of its kind in the country.

If participants deposit 80,000 won per month (based on annual contributions) into their individual IRP account, Gyeongsangnam-do will add an additional 20,000 won per month, providing up to 240,000 won per year for a maximum of 10 years.

For example, if a 50-year-old resident deposits 80,000 won per month, totaling 960,000 won per year for 10 years, in a regular savings account with an annual compound interest rate of 2%, they will have contributed a total of 9.6 million won.

With the province’s annual support of 240,000 won for 10 years (totaling 2.4 million won), the total amount will reach approximately 13.02 million won. If this is distributed over five years (60 months) starting at age 60, the monthly pension payment would be around 217,000 won.

This example does not reflect investment returns or pension income tax during the payout period for the sake of calculation simplicity.

The province plans to continue improving the system to address issues such as website access delays that occurred during this recruitment process.

Furthermore, Gyeongsangnam-do aims to secure a total of 100,000 participants over the next 10 years by enrolling 10,000 people each year.