National Pension Exempts Increase

The number of people who are exempted from the national pension plan is increasing due to unemployment.

The National Pension Corporation (NPC) announced yesterday that 4,598,264 (46.3percent) out of 9,933,263 subscribers, are exempts.

The exemptions made up 41.7 percent out of 10,088,434 in February 2002, however, as subscribers increased by 393,000 in two years, and the rate of exemptions increased by 4.6 percent.

The reasons for exemption were listed as: 3,583,581(77.9 percent) by unemployment, unclear addresses (10.4 percent), business interruptions (5.4 percent) and living difficulties (3.1 percent).

NPC said, “As unemployment increases, the number of exemptions also increases. Therefore, even though they pay their pension when they earn money afterwards, their receiving money will be deduced. They might suffer from it later on.”

Exemptions are those who do not earn money due to unemployment, temporary rest, illness, business interruptions, prison confinements and those who are over 27 and are attending school or serving in the army.

Seong-Yub Ra cpu@donga.com