Korean Job Discussion Forums

[jlb]

So the saga of Kids Herald School in Cheonan continues. I got back to Canada a while ago and thought I should claim my pension money. I did all the paperwork and waited for a reply from the Korean Pension Corporation. I got a letter saying that I never contributed any money so I have no right to a refund. The shady thing is that my school took money off my pay every month but didn't pay the government. I can almost guarantee they didn't pay the taxes they took off my pay either. Stupid, stupid me for not getting proof from my school. A lesson learned.

Anyway, does anyone have any experience in this? Is there something I can do to get my money now that I'm back in Canada? Some way to get my school in trouble? What to do?

If I was in Korea I would go to the stupid hagwon and demand the money but that isn't the case.

AVOID KIDS HERALD SCHOOL IN CHEONAN!!!!

[phaedrus]

Send a letter to the pension office with copies of your pay stubs that show deductions, and a photocopy of your visa page.

Give them the owner's name, school name, and school address.

OR, tell the school owner you'll do this if you don't get your half in your account by the end of this week.

Probably the pension office doesn't give a care though. I contacted them about unpaid pension, myself and the school, in the past. They said, whatever. It would require I pay back pension, and the school also. They said don't bother unless I want the headache of getting the school to pay. They said it won't affect my future refund now that I'm paying. I would rather hold on to the back money.

[Real Reality]

This seems to happens at hagwons, universities, and companies.
Please remember to look into your pension at the local pension office.

Contact Information of Regional Offices
http://www.npc.or.kr/eng/enpc.html?code=./enpc/b01.html
If you go to the office, look for the sign that says "Kuk min yeon geum (�����)"
Social Security Agreement
http://www.npc.or.kr/social/index_en.html

Foreigners Experience Difficulties in Living in Korea
An official in the International Cooperation Division of Seoul City admitted, "The same complaints regarding visas, transportation, education, and environment are raised every year without being solved, due to the lack of cooperation from government agencies involved and their passive attitudes."
http://english.donga.com/srv/service.php3?biid=2004070522448

[posco's trumpet]

The Seoul office recently moved to the same building as Young Poong Book Center. I believe they are on the sixth floor.


Chonggak Station, Line #1

[prairieboy]

You can prevent this from happening again regardless.

Here's how.

My first hogwon didn't deduct any pension or health premiums (except a small portion to cover the owner's health, which he then had us use illegally when we needed to see the doctor). Eventually we got signed on with NHIC and that alerted the pension office.

They demanded payment and we were all eventually paying into the plan and receiving statements about total contributions to date, etc.

My second school was deducting pension money but I knew they weren't paying it. So I called them on it and they gave me all of my money rather than have the tax office dig through the finances. I figured this out when I received a notice from the pension office that I should enroll. I showed it to the owner and he threw it away and said it was garbage.

I dug it out and called the number and got some information on how and where to enroll.

I took care of it myself with the help of a Korean friend. I now receive my monthly pension bill. I pay it and charge my hogwon the difference between the bill and what my 4.5% would be.

This works only because I know enough about the shady tax situation that it costs them less to appease me than to go through a tax investigation.

Cheers

[justagirl]

Prairie Boy--same thing for us at our hakwon. Got the health insurance, which notified the pension office. It's good for an extra 1,600,000 or more each year you work. And you should get your bonus for working a complete year. That last paycheck could be around 6 million won, plus your plane ticket home!

JLB--what a bummer! Thanks for reminding me about proof. I don't think we have to worry, but I better get a copy of paystub/etc from my boss. Do you want me to possibly let the other teachers there know that the same might happen to them? At least they would have a chance of not getting ripped off.

Anything we could possibly do to help? Write up some flyers in Korean and sprinkle them around the neighborhood?

justagirl