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SEOUL, Sept. 3 (Korea Bizwire) — A new measure is being put forth that would allow for the immediate split of pension funds between spouses upon divorce.
According to the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the National Pension Service, a committee created by the ministry to overlook the use of funds by the National Pension Service has recently advised that the measure be reflected in the current “pension installment system.”
The system, introduced in 1999 via the national pension law, guarantees that spouses who are unable to enlist in the national pension program while raising children and doing housework benefit from the pension plan.
The system, recognizing the economic contributions of homemakers, aimed to appropriate a set amount in pension funds to guarantee their retirement income.
However, in order to actually benefit from the system, applicants were required to meet a particular set of difficult conditions.
The marriage must have lasted for more than five years, with the divorce legal in formal form.
In addition, the divorced former spouse had to be a qualified recipient of pension funds while his or her spouse had to have reached the eligible age to receive pension funds.
Many potential pension recipients have been unable to fulfill the mandatory requirements, a situation that the new measure seeks to amend.
The committee overlooking the matter has proposed that the pension funds not be paid in installments when the divorced spouse becomes eligible for the pension, but rather that they be disbursed immediately in installments upon divorce.
The committee has also advised that that the current marriage duration requirement of five years be reduced to just one year instead, a move designed to reflect current societal trends in which fewer marriages last for more than five years due to the increased incidence of divorce and remarriages.
H. S. Seo (hsseo@koreabizwire.com)
