Korean Job Discussion Forums

[passingtime]

I don't pay pension but I have a privaye medical plan which is about the same price wise as the national one.

[DeLaRed]

been offered a position recently and they said I had the option of paying into the pension or not. Sort of contemplating it as we will probably never see it again.

Do many of you Brits not bother paying into the pension with your school? I know the pension and insurance come hand in hand so the employer said he would pay the insurance if I got it from the UK.

[Donghae]

First up, don't take this as gospel because, as you can see on the left, I don't live or work in Korea any more. However, I'm a UK citizen with family in Korea and as I may conceivably return to Korea long term in the future and then to the UK (or even vice-versa) I made quite a few enquiries about state pensions at the relevant offices in both countries about a year ago.

What I was told on the Korean side (when I eventually found someone who could understand that refunds to US citizens was of neither interest nor relevance to me )is that UK citizens paying into the Korean national pension system can have that count towards their national insurance account in the UK when they leave Korea. So there's no cash refund, but that money taken off you in Korea isn't wasted.

In fact, the advantage may be bigger and more immediate than some people realise. Because if you're out of the UK for a couple of years or longer, your N.I. account is likely to not have been topped up enough for you to be able to receive many of the benefits that come from N.I., like unemployment benefit, medical treatment etc. So having what you paid in Korea transferred to the UK may not have any obvious immediate benefit for many people, but it might help you avoid a nasty surprise if/when you try to sign on the dole, go to hospital etc. All of this I learned from enquiries made in the UK, but, to be honest, the people I asked there were even more clueless than any of their pension office counterparts in Korea. (First two I spoke to both asked me "Korea? North or South?" ). I tried in vain to get some more precise info about how much of the pension money paid in Korea was worth how much in a UK N.I. account that it was transferred to and what potential benefits in the UK might be affected.

Hope that's of use to someone, apologies if I've added to any confusion!

[Toon Army]

[highdials5]