Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Snowflake]

I've been trying to find out about the agreement with the UK and Korea regarding pension for a while and finally have a conclusive answer.

We are required to pay the pension here by law however it will NOT be transferred back to our pension account in the UK when we leave.
We can pay voluntary contributions back in the UK however I'm pretty frustrated at paying nearly 120,000 a month on something I'll probably never see (retiring here isn't ruled out yet...).

So I guess I'm just trying to see if there are enough people who care about this and see if there's anything at all we can do.

[fromtheuk]

You should've raised this at the g20 summit. If this is true, it stinks. So, in other words that money goes down the drain?!!

[hugekebab]

You just get the money back at the end of your time here. What's all the fuss about?

[LostinKSpace]

[AussieGav]

[RufusW]

[Hyeon Een]

I'm pretty sure it can be transferred to National Insurance in the UK. I'm sure I read about it on the UK tax site a few years ago..

[Snowflake]

I know - that's what I always thought but I've finally got a definite answer from the Pension Service:

"This is in response to your request.

We are sorry to say that there is no provision other than the exemption rule under the Convention on Social Security between Korea and UK so that it is not true that the contributions under the Korean legislation can be transferable to the UK pension scheme.


The reason is as follows. The Korean Pension legislation provides that both Korean and foreign employees in Korea be under the Program so that UK nationals should be under the law.


The Convention mentioned above prescribes only exemption of pension contributions payment in Korea and NI tax payment in UK under certain restricted conditions such as detached workers to each country.


However, if the convention does not apply to a person, the person should be under the residing country�s law. For example, if a UK national is employed in Korea, the person should be under the Korean legislation, not under the UK one, because the person is not a detached worker provided under the Convention. The Korean legislation does not envision any transference of its contributions to other countries� pension scheme.

UK nationals under the Korean National Pension Act are entitled to every Korean

benefit if they satisfy its regulation other than lump-sum refund benefit, which is

based on the principle of reciprocity. Korean nationals are treated in UK in light of NI

taxes same as UK nationals are in Korea in a view of Korean National Pension.

We regret to say that the NPS does not refund contributions to UK nationals when they leave Korea as UK government does not pay back NI taxes to Korean nationals in the same situation.

However, if both countries make a revision on the Convention in the future, it may be possible for the NPS to pay lump-sum refund to UK nationals.

There are some complaints among English nationals because of the terminology, PENSION, used in Korean program. As I mentioned above, the Korean National Pension is equivalent to NI tax in UK.



If you have further questions, feel free to contact us. Thank you."

[Snowflake]

Oh I should say as well that the Pension Service in the UK also said it couldn't be transferred....but I wasn't happy with that answer so I carried on digging.

[BS.Dos.]

Take on a few privates then and call it evens.

[Looney]

[missty]

[Snowflake]

[Capo]

I heard something along the lines that if you paid into for 5 years or more it is transferable to your UK pension. However if such an event did happen I would half expect the treasury to just throw it into a big pot and not link it you.

[Geckoman]

GOD SAVE THE QUEEN!