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Will Wiggle
Joined: 22 Apr 2013 Location: South Korea
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cj1976
Joined: 26 Oct 2005
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Posted: Sun May 05, 2013 5:06 pm Post subject: Re: Know Your Pension Details! It's Your Money. |
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Nice idea, but before I go reading through those pages, does this information apply to British citizens? I know that we can't claim it back like our North American buddies. |
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Will Wiggle
Joined: 22 Apr 2013 Location: South Korea
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Posted: Sun May 05, 2013 5:17 pm Post subject: Good Question |
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Isn�t this unfair to the Irish, British and New Zealanders?
It does seem so, especially when friends are walking away with double what they put in, and you get zilch. Sadly for you these countries, (along with the Netherlands, Italy, Mongolia, Uzbekistan, China & Japan), have no inter-government agreement for full refunds. Instead they operate under a �contributions only� rule. The positive point is that you at least avoid paying into mandatory pension schemes in both countries at once. |
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cj1976
Joined: 26 Oct 2005
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Posted: Sun May 05, 2013 5:49 pm Post subject: |
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It sucks. They sent me a letter telling me how much I had paid into the pension system. Over 9 million won that I will never see again. |
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Weigookin74
Joined: 26 Oct 2009
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Posted: Sun May 05, 2013 6:43 pm Post subject: |
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You do get the money from the Korean government when you retire along with any other pensions you've paid into. You just don't have the option of cashing it out instead when you leave. So, to remember, you will get a monthly check from the Korean government no matter where you are living once you're retired. Just remember to apply for it and keep track of your Korean ID as it's probably easier when applying in the future. |
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Weigookin74
Joined: 26 Oct 2009
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Posted: Sun May 05, 2013 6:45 pm Post subject: Re: Know Your Pension Details! It's Your Money. |
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cj1976 wrote: |
Nice idea, but before I go reading through those pages, does this information apply to British citizens? I know that we can't claim it back like our North American buddies. |
Your North American buddies won't get a monthly check at age 65, like you will. |
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deizio
Joined: 15 Jun 2007
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Posted: Sun May 05, 2013 7:52 pm Post subject: Re: Good Question |
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Will Wiggle wrote: |
Isn�t this unfair to the Irish, British and New Zealanders?
It does seem so, especially when friends are walking away with double what they put in, and you get zilch. Sadly for you these countries, (along with the Netherlands, Italy, Mongolia, Uzbekistan, China & Japan), have no inter-government agreement for full refunds. Instead they operate under a �contributions only� rule. The positive point is that you at least avoid paying into mandatory pension schemes in both countries at once. |
Not sure about Ire / NZ but the issue for Brits is that the "National Insurance" levy in the UK is not directly equivalent to the Korean national pension contribution, and the UK will not / cannot unpick the state pension portion from the other things that NI pays for (e.g. unemployment and other benefits) and refund it to Koreans when leaving after working in the UK. I presume this goes for other countries' citizens too.
Therefore places like Korea are not willing to dish out refunds to people from countries that don't give its citizens the same treatment.
Maybe Britain made some kind of calculation and decided that it's better off with the full NI payments of foreign workers vs. returning workers spending their refunded pensions at home, or it's just something they can't be bothered to deal with. Who knows... |
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le-paul
Joined: 07 Apr 2009 Location: dans la chambre
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Posted: Sun May 05, 2013 9:37 pm Post subject: |
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as far as i know, brits can. get a pension rebate after theyve left korea. go to the pension office and ask them how ( i dont know the ins and outs of it yet) |
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valkerie
Joined: 02 Mar 2007 Location: Busan
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Posted: Mon May 06, 2013 12:26 am Post subject: |
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le-paul wrote: |
as far as i know, brits can. get a pension rebate after theyve left korea. go to the pension office and ask them how ( i dont know the ins and outs of it yet) |
Not from the national pension. I can get back what I put in from the private pension I pay into though.
I read the article - didn't know about the dual citizenship option for Brits. It doesn't apply to me but good to know. |
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ttompatz
Joined: 05 Sep 2005 Location: Kwangju, South Korea
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le-paul
Joined: 07 Apr 2009 Location: dans la chambre
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Posted: Mon May 06, 2013 2:22 am Post subject: |
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I went to the pensions office last year, they said something to the effect of: as a brit, you have to have left korea for 6 months and be able to prove youre residing in your own country before you can apply for the rebate. But you will receive it.
the article does say this (see below) but ive no idea what it means...
benefits of the convention
① Since the Convention on Social Security Between Korea and the UK is a Contributions-only Convention, there is no provision of Totalization of Periods of Coverage for the entitlement to benefit.
② Therefore, there is no pension benefits under the Convention, whether the payment is granted depends on the each country's legislation respectively.
③ And a Korean Lump-sum refund is not paid to the nationals of U.K.
※ For more information, you may refer to the section Convention
are you saying therefore, that what i was told at the pensions office was wrong as the two (if the above means we cannot apply for a rebate) seem at odds? |
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b-class rambler
Joined: 25 Mar 2009
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Posted: Mon May 06, 2013 9:27 pm Post subject: |
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le-paul wrote: |
are you saying therefore, that what i was told at the pensions office was wrong as the two (if the above means we cannot apply for a rebate) seem at odds? |
I can't speak for what anyone else was saying, but I can quite categorically confirm that there is no provision at all for any kind of refund, rebate or transfer of pension funds for UK citizens who've been working in Korea. At least, not as things presently stand. You either get the money on retirement in Korea (or into a Korean bank account) or you don't get it at all.
Actually, there is one loophole that a very small number of UK citizens might be able to benefit from. If you have another nationality and that other nationality is one that gets a refund of Korean pension, then you can use that other passport to get the money. I think there are a couple of hoops you have to jump through if you came to Korea on your UK passport, but it's still doable.
Weigookin74 wrote: |
Your North American buddies won't get a monthly check at age 65, like you will. |
Of course, that's the silver lining. HOWEVER....I think there might be a minimum number of qualifying contributory years required. I'm not totally sure about this and would like to find out for certain, but the limited research I did suggested it was a minimum of ten years Korean national pension contributions that were needed to be eligible*. If that's true, then the next thing I'd want to know would be whether or not a number of years less than 10 could be topped up with voluntary contributions. And if you could do that, the next question would be to work out the maths of whether it was worth doing so.
If anyone DOES know for certain about the qualifying years requirement, or lack thereof, then I'd be happy to hear about it.
*EDIT - I hadn't actually read the OP's link when I wrote the above and I see now that he also thinks it's 10 years contributions you need. Again, if anyone knows if it's possible to top that up from a lesser number of years (or not), it'd be good to hear. |
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le-paul
Joined: 07 Apr 2009 Location: dans la chambre
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Posted: Mon May 06, 2013 10:44 pm Post subject: |
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cheers |
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Weigookin74
Joined: 26 Oct 2009
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Posted: Wed May 08, 2013 9:38 pm Post subject: |
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b-class rambler wrote: |
le-paul wrote: |
are you saying therefore, that what i was told at the pensions office was wrong as the two (if the above means we cannot apply for a rebate) seem at odds? |
I can't speak for what anyone else was saying, but I can quite categorically confirm that there is no provision at all for any kind of refund, rebate or transfer of pension funds for UK citizens who've been working in Korea. At least, not as things presently stand. You either get the money on retirement in Korea (or into a Korean bank account) or you don't get it at all.
Actually, there is one loophole that a very small number of UK citizens might be able to benefit from. If you have another nationality and that other nationality is one that gets a refund of Korean pension, then you can use that other passport to get the money. I think there are a couple of hoops you have to jump through if you came to Korea on your UK passport, but it's still doable.
Weigookin74 wrote: |
Your North American buddies won't get a monthly check at age 65, like you will. |
Of course, that's the silver lining. HOWEVER....I think there might be a minimum number of qualifying contributory years required. I'm not totally sure about this and would like to find out for certain, but the limited research I did suggested it was a minimum of ten years Korean national pension contributions that were needed to be eligible*. If that's true, then the next thing I'd want to know would be whether or not a number of years less than 10 could be topped up with voluntary contributions. And if you could do that, the next question would be to work out the maths of whether it was worth doing so.
If anyone DOES know for certain about the qualifying years requirement, or lack thereof, then I'd be happy to hear about it.
*EDIT - I hadn't actually read the OP's link when I wrote the above and I see now that he also thinks it's 10 years contributions you need. Again, if anyone knows if it's possible to top that up from a lesser number of years (or not), it'd be good to hear. |
I was told by the Canadian government pension office that they would apply to the Korean government on my behalf for the pension they owe me. (Assuming, I don't cash it out.) It's pretty standard for governments to pay pension to those who paid into them no matter where they are living in the world. Maybe, those rules are different for Brits. It's your's, you paid into it. Not sure of the 10 year rule as I never looked into it. I may make it to that. (Not quite there yet.) |
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le-paul
Joined: 07 Apr 2009 Location: dans la chambre
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Posted: Wed May 08, 2013 10:05 pm Post subject: |
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that was my logic too. I just hope the regional pension offices see it our way |
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