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red dog
Joined: 31 Oct 2004
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Posted: Sat Jul 29, 2006 9:12 pm Post subject: |
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Not sure about FB and C's question, but I recently heard from a lawyer that you can change your mind even after collecting a pension refund ... and still be eligible for another one if you return to Korea. |
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kormanrockin
Joined: 15 Jul 2004
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Posted: Thu Aug 10, 2006 4:25 am Post subject: Reporting Employers for NOT paying pension |
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Any idea how / to whom one should report an employer that does NOT participate in the pension plan? My understanding is that, if an employer has 10 or more employees, they are required by law to participate in a pension scheme. Scheme may be the more telling word here. I"m sure they only have to bribe to proper official to avoid it, but I'm still curious if you know how to get the government in their business. |
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Zark
Joined: 12 May 2003 Location: Phuket, Thailand: Look into my eyes . . .
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Posted: Thu Aug 10, 2006 5:29 am Post subject: Re: Reporting Employers for NOT paying pension |
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kormanrockin wrote: |
Any idea how / to whom one should report an employer that does NOT participate in the pension plan? My understanding is that, if an employer has 10 or more employees, they are required by law to participate in a pension scheme. Scheme may be the more telling word here. I"m sure they only have to bribe to proper official to avoid it, but I'm still curious if you know how to get the government in their business. |
I would suggest a visit to the pension office to innocently enquire about your account . . . only to be greatly distressed by the absence of such an account. Ask appropriate questions . . . |
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cuckoo for kimchi
Joined: 27 Jul 2006 Location: somewhere lost in time and space...or korea
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Posted: Thu Aug 10, 2006 10:33 pm Post subject: |
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red dog wrote: |
Not sure about FB and C's question, but I recently heard from a lawyer that you can change your mind even after collecting a pension refund ... and still be eligible for another one if you return to Korea. |
It should not make any difference if you leave....get the refund...then come back.....should it. Eventually when you leave you would get that money anyway....it should not matter....now or later....Well, that's what I'm going to try |
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SarcasmKills
Joined: 07 Apr 2003 Location: Seoul
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Posted: Sun Aug 20, 2006 3:41 pm Post subject: |
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In my situation, I'm switching my status without (hopefully) leaving the country..
I'm going from a working visa to a student visa.. does anyone know if I'll have problems collecting my pension because of this? Will I have to wait until I am done my study period to get it? |
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Dev
Joined: 18 Apr 2006
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Posted: Tue Aug 22, 2006 12:08 am Post subject: |
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If you're just switching employers but not leaving the country, can you apply for a refund on the pension contributions you have already made? |
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Schneepat
Joined: 18 Feb 2003
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Posted: Fri Aug 25, 2006 6:38 am Post subject: |
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I originally posted this as a lone thread. It would probably do better here.
There has been much talk about how the pension refund only applies to those with Canadian or US citizenship. Those from other countries were pretty much screwed. For the most part this is still true, but there have been recent developments for those carrying dual citizenship.
I worked in Korea from 2002 until June of this year. My E2 visa was under my British passport. A few months before I left I had heard rumors that there were changes being made with the pension program. I also carry Canadian citizenship, so my school inquired about the possibility of getting my money back.
Here's the process I went through to get my pension money back.
The Pension office required proof of citizenship for both countries. For my British citizenship I provided my passport, my British birth certificate, as well as a document made up by the British consulate guaranteeing that my passport was authentic. The Pension office would prefer a British pension number, but that's something I don't have.
For my Canadian citizenship I provided my Canadian passport, my social insurance number, and my Canadian naturalization papers.
I also provided the Pension office with a Canadian bank account number for the transfer.
Up until two months before leaving Korea I had assumed that all the money that had been put into this pension fund was gone. It was nice to get a fairly huge chunk of cash back.
I did all of this at the Pension office in Bucheon. I know that my supervisor had to talk to a person fairly high up in the office about the whole procedure as the front desk personel didn't really know what to do. I hope that this information can help a few of you out there who have dual citizenship with getting your money back. If you have questions about the process, you can email me at [email protected]. |
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mschocokitty
Joined: 31 May 2006
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Posted: Mon Sep 11, 2006 6:52 am Post subject: |
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If I decide not to complete the full length of my contract, do I still get a refund on my pension? |
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Silverblue
Joined: 26 Jul 2006
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Posted: Sun Sep 17, 2006 7:47 am Post subject: Pension Refund! |
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Hey all,
This may already been asked but do you anyone know if Australian's get their Pension back???
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chronicpride
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
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chronicpride
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
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Posted: Sun Sep 17, 2006 10:33 am Post subject: |
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mschocokitty wrote: |
If I decide not to complete the full length of my contract, do I still get a refund on my pension? |
If your employer was legally deducting for pension, then I don't see why not. But given that you need to show ARC when you go to the pension office, you might get raised eyebrows over the timing of it all. If you're leaving early with LOR, you'd be best to bring that along to avoid confusion. If you're running, well, pray to god that they don't ask much questions or call your employer to confirm some things. |
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Ed Provencher
Joined: 15 Oct 2006
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Posted: Thu Nov 23, 2006 5:34 pm Post subject: |
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On this website: http://www.nps4u.or.kr/eng/enpsk.html?code=./enpsk/a01.html
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(2) Who are excluded from the coverage of the Scheme?
Those falling under any of the following items are excluded from the coverage of the scheme even if they satisfy the general coverage criteria.
�� The government employees, military personnel, private school teachers, and employees of specially designated post office, because they are covered under their own pension plans.
�� National Pension beneficiaries from 55 to less than 60 (Early Old-age pensioner and Old-age pensioner as a miner or fisherman) |
Does this mean that hagwon teachers are excluded from coverage?
My potential employer has just one foreign teacher and two Korean teachers. They do not want to enroll me in the Pension Scheme. Should put up a fight to get in it? |
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alabamaman
Joined: 25 Apr 2006
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Posted: Thu Nov 23, 2006 6:45 pm Post subject: |
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http://www.npc.or.kr/social/index_en.html
http://www.efl-law.com/Pension.php
Here�s what efl-law says about your question:
Under the National Pension Act, a lump-sum refund may only be paid to non-Korean nationals if they are nationals of countries with social security systems that pay corresponding contribution refunds to Korean nationals or if provided for by an agreement. All foreigners are eligible for a lump sum refund of Premiums paid, if they are from countries that have 'totalization agreements' with Korea, and if the foreigner leaves Korea or meet other eligibility requirements, (N.B. Australians do not) The United States and Canada have negotiated totalization agreements with Korea. The U.K. has negotiated a contribution only agreement. This means that a foreigner from the U.K. who is employed in Korea may benefit from the elimination of dual coverage, but will not get a lump sum refund. In Korea the refund is processed by the National Pension Corporation, in Canada by the Human Resources Development Org', in the U.S. by the Social Security Administration. If you submit your application in your home country, that agency will forward it to Korea. Many teachers do apply in Korea before leaving the country and arrange the refund as well. Countries such as New Zealand, Australia and South Africa have not signed any agreement therefore citizens from these countries cannot claim any refund or reciprocal payments after paying Korean Pension tax.
Question: I work for a university and have heard I don't get Severance Pay. Is this legal?
1. Are you in the National Pension Program, or a "Private Schools' Pension" program. Most (English version) teachers contracts do not indicate.
Severance and Pension are different. The pension programs have been in a state of flux the past 5 years as the government tries to pull many different programs into a single unified entity (for financial purposes, as many of the government-supported pensions were projecting insolvency).
Private secondary and tertiary education institutions are allowed to provide pensions outside of the government-supported programs (government programs mostly now unified in the "National Pension Program" - which is roughly similar to the US Social Security Insurance program in many respects). These private pensions are operated by insurance agencies, very similar to company pension programs back in North America. However, unlike in North America (so far as I know), in Korea
participation in a private pension program exempts the employee and employer from the National Pension Program. But there has to be a specific law on the books allowing that "type of employer" to offer a private pension program - such as is the case for private secondary and tertiary (middle/high and college/university) schools.
Private secondary/tertiary schools that provide pensions under the private schools pension law are exempt from the severance pay law.
Why? - I have three possible reasons
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(1) university/colleges are politically very powerful, many school heads are politicians, (2) long-term employees in private pension programs will receive considerably more money under the private pension than they would under a government-supported pension (interest accrues from day one on both employee and employer payments, and it is available as a lump sum at time of employment termination, though employees do not receive employer's share prior to vesting (5 years as employee?)).
(3) from the earliest days of education in Korea, schools have had severe economic problems - and since teachers typically "worked" less than 45 weeks per year yet were paid for 52, there seemed no logic in paying them for 56 weeks (the 13th month). Hence, employees in both public and private primary/secondary/tertiary schools are exempt from the severance pay requirements.
Any contract (in Korean) that states that you get severance pay, the courts would order a school to pay. (If you can afford the lawyers fees!) There are several recent instances of this. However, English
versions of contracts are often poorly translated, and are NOT legally binding.
Having said that:
(1) Private language school "Hagwons" are not part of this exemption (one could argue that most expats in Korea work in "language centers" that aren't really any different from private profit-oriented language schools)
(2) Some univ/college do pay severance pay, because (a) they don't put their expat and part-time Korean teachers in the private pension, but pay the National Pension Program because of less
paperwork headaches (b) they consider it unlikely that the expats will ever vest in the private pension, and therefore not receive employer's share (I don't know if they get their employer's share back from the insurance agency, and don't care to consider all the possible official and unofficial issues that question might raise).
So, ask the school whether you are in the National Pension Program (gukmin yeon-geum) or the Private Schools' Pension (sarib hakgyo yeon-geum). And ask someone to read the Korean version of your contract to see if it mentions severance pay (dwaechi-geum). |
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Sputty
Joined: 20 Nov 2006
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Posted: Wed Nov 29, 2006 4:35 am Post subject: |
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Quick question concerning the pension refund. I've just finished my contract, applied for the pension refund, and received the money already.
But I'm wondering if I've made a mistake - will this affect my eligibility for non-residency in Canada?
If so, is it possible to reverse the pension refund? I've seen no discussion of this topic - does anyone have experience with this particular scenario? |
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princess
Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Location: soul of Asia
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Posted: Thu Dec 14, 2006 3:57 am Post subject: |
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I worked 2 years in Seoul and 2 years in Uijeoungbu, so does this mean in the future I will have to go to 2 different pension offices, one in Seoul and one in Uijeoungbu??? |
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