Politics · South Korea · 3 days ago
South Korea paid benefits for months or years after recipients died
South Korea’s health ministry continued some welfare payments after recipients had died.
In one case, a basic pension was paid for 1,261 days after the recipient died in 2022, and the ministry learned of the death about three years later.
It decided to recover about 7.95 million won, but about 7.65 million won remains unpaid and is being deducted from the spouse’s pension.
Child allowance was paid for as long as 12 months after a death, while some livelihood support continued for up to 116 days.
The cases point to delays in sharing death information and problems collecting money that was paid by mistake.
Lawmakers are urging the government to improve information links between agencies and strengthen safeguards and recovery systems.
The government plans to introduce a new child allowance next year that would pay two to three times the current child allowance, raising concern that mistaken payments could grow if controls are not improved.
South Korea continued paying basic pensions for as long as 1,261 days after a recipient died, according to government data.
Child benefits were paid for as long as 12 months after a recipient’s death, while a livelihood benefit was paid for 116 days after a death.
The Welfare Ministry said delayed death reports meant it learned of one pension recipient’s death about three years later.
A lawmaker called for checks on the links between government systems that share death information.
Data also showed that only 64.9% of wrongly paid child allowances and parental benefits ordered repaid over five years had been recovered.
- Who
- South Korea’s Welfare Ministry continued payments to deceased recipients.
- What
- Basic pensions, child allowances and livelihood benefits were paid after recipients died.
- When
- The reported cases include payments after deaths in 2022 and cases recorded through August 2026.
- Where
- South Korea.
- Why
- The ministry said delayed death reports meant it did not learn of one recipient’s death for about three years.
Lawmakers calling for stronger oversight
Welfare Ministry
Death information
Lawmakers calling for stronger oversight
Park Ji-won called for checks on links between agencies’ death-information systems.
Welfare Ministry
The ministry said delayed reporting meant it learned of one recipient’s death about three years later.
A basic pension recipient died, but payments continued for 1,261 days.
Livelihood benefits were paid after deaths in 790 cases, according to data cited by Yonhap.
Lawmakers disclosed the payment cases and called for improvements to benefit oversight.
- Longest post-death basic pension payment
- 1,261 days
- Longest post-death child allowance payment
- 12 months
- Longest post-death livelihood benefit payment
- 116 days
- Unrecovered pension overpayment
- 7,652,160 won
- Child allowances and parental benefits ordered repaid over five years
- 11.75 billion won
- Recovery rate for those child and parental benefit overpayments
- 64.9%
What people are saying
행정안전부 등과의 사망 정보 연계망을 점검하는 등 개선 방안을 시급히 마련해야 한다
오지급과 미환수 문제를 그대로 방치해서는 안 된다
Sources
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