SEOUL, KOREA - A study argued that the age of those who are eligible for national pension benefits be raised to 67 years from current 60 in order to prevent the pension fund from going bankrupt. It also advocated that the current pension insurance rate of 9 percent of the monthly income be increased up to 12.9 percent.

 

Park Jong-kyu, senior research fellow with the Korea Institute of Finance, said this in a report "Population Aging and the National Pension Scheme" published on April 24. He added, "Given the current economic growth rate and the National Pension Scheme finance trend, the fund can be maintained in a stable manner by 2070 if such measures are taken now."

 

Park said that at the current rate without emergency measures as suggested by him the national pension fund will incur the first loss by 2041 and will be exhausted by 2053. Under a 2007 revised law, the age eligibility for national pension benefits would be raised to 65 in 2033 from current 60 in stages.