Nationwide Pension Service (NPS) headquarters in Jeonju, North Jeolla Province / Courtesy of NPS
Korea has enacted a significant reform to its pension system that stops mother and father who deserted their kids from claiming survivor advantages after the kid’s demise — a transfer that challenges long-standing social norms about unconditional parental rights.
The revised Nationwide Pension Service Act, handed by the Nationwide Meeting this week, bars mother and father who failed to satisfy their authorized obligation to assist a minor little one from receiving any financial advantages tied to that little one’s demise.
The change mirrors a shift in Korean society towards equity and accountability over conventional concepts of entitlement based mostly on blood ties.
For many years, household legislation in Korea was closely influenced by Korean ethical ethics, which emphasised filial obligation and parental authority as sacred bonds. Underneath this ethical code, parental rights, together with inheritance and profit claims, endured even when a father or mother had uncared for or deserted a toddler. The underlying assumption was that organic ties couldn’t be severed, no matter mother and father’ actions or accountability.
That sentiment was examined by a number of high-profile circumstances that sparked public outrage. In some cases, estranged mother and father who had lengthy disappeared resurfaced solely after an grownup little one’s demise to demand life insurance coverage or pension advantages.
The so-called “Goo Hara Regulation,” named after a late Okay-pop singer whose organic mom left the household when Goo was round 8 or 9 years previous and sought her property regardless of having no function in elevating her, started addressing this inequity in inheritance legislation. The brand new pension reform extends the identical precept to the nationwide pension framework.
Underneath the modification, the Nationwide Pension Service can deny funds as soon as a household courtroom guidelines {that a} father or mother has misplaced inheritance rights beneath Article 1004-2 of the Civil Code. This is applicable to month-to-month survivor pensions, lump-sum demise advantages, refunds of paid premiums and different unpaid dues.
The legislation takes impact Jan. 1, aligning with the implementation of the broader Civil Code revision. After that, mother and father discovered responsible of neglect or abuse will now not be capable to declare any type of pension cost related to their deceased kids.
Authorities officers mentioned the change is a matter of ethical justice as a lot as it’s a monetary reform. It goals to revive public belief within the nationwide pension system by making certain that solely those that have met their obligations as mother and father can profit from it — reaffirming a contemporary commonplace of accountability over organic ties.
