If you work in Korea, the National Pension comes out of your pay every month. Two questions follow: will I actually get it, and how much? This time we opened the National Pension Service's own benefit formula and checked the figures one by one.
1. What it costs and pays. The rate is 9.5% from 1 January 2026 (workplace members pay half, 4.75%). On the benefit side, 43% of average earnings assumes a full forty years — a shorter record scales down proportionally.
2. What people get wrong. Two things — “65 from 2033” appears nowhere in the source (the trigger is your birth year), and 43% is not applied retroactively to contributions already made.
3. What to do. Clear ten years (120 months) first; below that it is a lump-sum refund, not a pension. For your own figure, the NPS “My Pension” lookup is the accurate one.
What only the source makes clear — the 43% replacement rate is not a rise, it is a partial reversal. From 50% in 2008 it fell 0.5 percentage points every year for 18 years, reaching 41.5% in 2025, and 2026 lifted it to 43% (our calculation). The formula's proportional constant moved the same way, 1.245 → 1.29.
The real shape of the replacement rate
The NPS “benefit calculation” page publishes the proportional constants alongside the replacement rates. Copied from the source:
| Period | Constant | Replacement rate |
|---|---|---|
| 1988–1998 | 2.4 | 70% |
| 1999–2007 | 1.8 | 60% |
| 2008–2025 | 1.5, falling 0.015 a year | 50%, falling 0.5pp a year |
| 2026 onward | 1.29 | 43% |
We applied the published rule. From 50% in 2008, 0.5pp a year for 17 years gives 41.5% in 2025; the constant falls from 1.5 by 0.015 a year to 1.245. The source's own P20 constant is exactly 1.245, so the arithmetic checks out.
And checking it surfaced a rule. For every period from 1999 on, the constant equals the replacement rate × 0.03, exactly —
1.8 = 60 × 0.03 · 1.5 = 50 × 0.03 · 1.245 = 41.5 × 0.03 · 1.29 = 43 × 0.03 (our calculation).
Only 1988–1998 breaks it (2.4 ≠ 70 × 0.03) — that term uses a different structure, multiplying your own income B by 0.75.
So 43% is 3.61% above 41.5% (43 ÷ 41.5 = 1.0361), and 1.29 ÷ 1.245 = 1.0361 too — identical to four decimal places. The two numbers are one number.
What you pay in
The source's formula is “contribution = standard monthly income × contribution rate.”
- 9.5% in 2026. The source: the rate was 9% from 1998 through 2025, and from 2026 it rises 0.5pp a year for eight years, reaching 13% in 2033. Check: 9.0 + 0.5 × 8 = 13.0. “From 2026” means 1 January 2026 (quoted below).
- Workplace members split it with the employer — 4.75% each. Regional, voluntary and continued-voluntary members pay the whole thing.
- Standard monthly income is capped and floored — ₩410,000 to ₩6,590,000 (July 2026 to June 2027). Income above the cap raises neither your contribution nor your pension.
- The band changes in July, not January. The source: the Minister publishes it by the end of March, applying from July for one year.
“The partial amendment to the National Pension Act was promulgated on 2 April 2025 and takes effect on 1 January 2026.”
“Raises the current 9% contribution rate by 0.5pp a year for eight years, reaching 13% from 2033 (Article 88 and supplementary provision 4).”
“Halts the scheduled decline of the nominal replacement rate, currently 41.5% in 2025, so that it becomes 43% from 2026 (Article 51 and supplementary provision 20 of Act No. 8541).”
— National Pension Service, notice of promulgation and entry into force (Act No. 20903)
1 January 2026. The contribution rate and the replacement rate moved on the same day under the same act — the “reversal” above and this rise are one package.
Checking the source's own example: ₩1,060,000 × 9.5% = ₩100,700, of which ₩50,350 is the employee's half. Exactly the figures printed. For your own numbers, try the national pension calculator.
What you get — “43%” assumes forty years
This is where most explanations mislead. The source's payment rate works like this:
Pension = basic pension amount × payment rate + dependant supplement
Old-age payment rate = 50% at 10 insured years, plus 5% for each year beyond 10 (5/12% per month for part years)
Forty years reaches a 200% payment rate — 50% + 5% × 30 (our calculation). Twenty years is exactly 100%. The headline 43% describes the case where that 200% applies.
So someone with twenty insured years is closer to half of 43%. That is why insured years, not contribution size, drive the outcome. Ways to add years are in six ways to increase your pension.
When it starts — by birth year, not by calendar year
The common summary is “63 now, 65 from 2033.” The source states birth years, not calendar years (Act No. 8541, Supplementary Provision 8).
| Born | Old-age | Early old-age | Split pension |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1953–1956 | 61 | 56 | 61 |
| 1957–1960 | 62 | 57 | 62 |
| 1961–1964 | 63 | 58 | 63 |
| 1965–1968 | 64 | 59 | 64 |
| 1969 or later | 65 | 60 | 65 |
This article previously said “65 from 2033.” That year appears nowhere in the source. What matters is the year you were born — born in 1969, you wait until 65 whatever the calendar says. The claim had no source, so it is gone.
- Ten insured years (120 months) is the minimum for an old-age pension. Below that you get a lump-sum refund instead.
- Early claiming is exactly five years ahead in every row of the table. It drops the rate to 70% permanently. The full comparison is in claiming early versus deferring.
Three things we had not seen before
① The dependant supplement is annual, not monthly
For 2026: ₩306,630 a year for a spouse, and ₩204,360 a year per child under 19 or parent over 60. Monthly that is ₩25,552.5 and ₩17,030 (our calculation) — much smaller than the name suggests.
② Up to ₩2.5 million is protected from seizure
Article 58. And a dedicated benefit account — the “National Pension Safe Account” — is protected at source (Article 54-2). An ordinary account needs a separate release step if it is seized.
③ The A value changes in December
The A value — the average standard monthly income of all members over the three years before claiming — is ₩3,193,511, applying December 2025 through November 2026. Not a January-to-December figure.
| Period | A value | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Dec 2023 – Nov 2024 | ₩2,989,237 | — |
| Dec 2024 – Nov 2025 | ₩3,089,062 | +3.34% |
| Dec 2025 – Nov 2026 | ₩3,193,511 | +3.38% |
Two consecutive years of 3.3–3.4% (our calculation). A rising A value lifts the pension even for an unchanged contribution history, because A is multiplied directly in the formula.
④ The n in (1 + 0.05n/12) is months of coverage beyond twenty years
The tail of the basic-pension formula, (1 + 0.05n/12), was cut off on the page we read. But the agency's own payment-rate sentence answers it.
The source says “50% at ten insured years, plus 5% for each year beyond ten.” That reaches exactly 100% at twenty years, and the same 5% keeps accruing after that. Rewrite it with twenty years as the base (=1):
| Insured years | Months beyond 20 years (n) | 1 + 0.05n/12 | NPS payment rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20 | 0 | 1.00 | 100% |
| 25 | 60 | 1.25 | 125% |
| 30 | 120 | 1.50 | 150% |
| 40 | 240 | 2.00 | 200% |
All four rows agree (our calculation). So n is the number of insured months beyond twenty years (240 months), and 0.05n/12 is “5% per year” written monthly. This is not a new source — it is the agency sentence we already quoted, checked by substitution.
⑤ The revaluation rates are set by the Minister, not the agency
How the revaluation table — 8.528 in 1988 down to 1.000 in 2025 — is derived does not appear on the NPS page. It is in the act and the decree. Article 51(1)2 provides that each year's standard monthly income is converted to present value “by the annual revaluation rates published by the Minister of Health and Welfare, as prescribed by Presidential Decree,” and Article 36 of the Enforcement Decree sets the calculation and requires prior deliberation by the National Pension Deliberation Committee.
Both provisions have now been cross-checked at the national statute portal. Last time our tooling could not read that site, so we used a private statute database. We have since opened the National Pension Act (in force 17 June 2026, Act 21203) art. 51(1)2 and its Enforcement Decree (in force 1 July 2025, Presidential Decree 35602) art. 36, and the quotations above matched word for word.
The check turned up one more line. Decree art. 36 defines the revaluation rate as the amount under subparagraph 1 divided by the amount under subparagraph 2, “rounded at the fourth decimal place.” That is why the revaluation table above runs to three decimals, as in 8.528 — not a formatting habit but the precision the provision sets.
Questions that remain
What if the fund runs out?
The source calls it “the safest retirement provision, operated and guaranteed by the state” and cites Article 3-2.
The depletion date itself is in the actuarial projections. The 2023 fifth actuarial review states that, on current settings, “a deficit arises from 2041 and the fund is depleted in 2055” — respectively one and two years earlier than the fourth review (2042 and 2057).
After the 2025 amendment, the Ministry of Health and Welfare stated in an explanatory release that “with the contribution rate (9→13%) and replacement rate (41.5→43%) adjustments, fund depletion is pushed from 2056 to 2064, an extension of eight years.”
Note the baseline is 2056, not 2055. The fifth review's 2055 and the ministry's 2056 come from projections made at different times. Writing “2055 → 2064” would be wrong — the ministry's phrasing is 2056 → 2064. To avoid blending them, this article keeps each figure attached to its own source.
Does 43% apply to contributions already made?
No. The formula multiplies a separate constant for each period (P1 through P21) — 2.4 for 1988–1998, 1.8 for 1999–2007, and so on. Each stretch is valued at its own constant.
Is the pension indexed to prices?
Yes — Article 51(2) requires annual adjustment by the national consumer price change, so that “the real value of the pension is always preserved.”
Does a very high salary mean a much larger pension?
Only up to a point. The standard monthly income cap of ₩6.59 million means income above it raises neither contributions nor benefits. How gross becomes net is in our net pay table.
Is the National Pension enough on its own?
A 200% payment rate takes forty insured years. Most careers fall short, so a retirement pension and private pension alongside it is the realistic plan — see retirement preparation by age.
Sources
- National Pension Service — agency source — “Pension benefits — benefit calculation” (checked 30 July 2026). Source for the basic pension formula, the constant and replacement-rate table (2.4 / 1.8 / 1.5 / 1.29 and 70% / 60% / 50% / 43%), the payment rate (50% at 10 years, +5% per year), the A value of ₩3,193,511 and its period, the dependant supplement and the ₩2.5m seizure protection.
- National Pension Service — agency source — “Old-age pension” (same date). Source for the start-age table by birth year (Act No. 8541, Supplementary Provision 8) and the early-claim ages.
- National Pension Service — agency source — “Contributions — amount and rate.” Source for the 9.5% rate and the schedule to 13% by 2033, the ₩410,000–₩6,590,000 band, the July application, the employer split and the ₩100,700 worked example.
- Our own calculation — the year-by-year replacement rate (41.5% in 2025) and constant (1.245), the “constant = rate × 0.03” rule, 43 ÷ 41.5 = 1.0361, the 50–200% payment rates, the monthly dependant figures and the 3.3–3.4% A-value growth are ours, derived from the source's values.
- National Pension Service — statutory notice — notice of promulgation and entry into force of the amended National Pension Act (Act No. 20903, checked August 2026). Source for promulgation on 2 April 2025 and effect from 1 January 2026, the 0.5pp-a-year rise over eight years (Art. 88 and supplementary provision 4), and 43% from 2026 (Art. 51).
- Actuarial Projection Committee / Ministry of Health and Welfare — fifth National Pension actuarial projection. Source for “a deficit from 2041 and depletion in 2055,” and the one- and two-year advance on the fourth review. Confirmed via the copy of the release carried by the Korea Insurance Research Institute (August 2026).
- Ministry of Health and Welfare explanatory release — “fund depletion is pushed from 2056 to 2064, an extension of eight years.” The ministry site would not open, so this was confirmed through a press report quoting it (August 2026) — an item still needing the agency original.
Where to check further
- Your own projected pension. The formula here is the same for everyone; the amount depends on your contribution history. The NPS “My Pension” lookup is the accurate one — for a rough figure first, the national pension calculator will do.
- The baseline behind “2056.” Which projection the ministry's “originally 2056” came from is unconfirmed — we could not open the release itself. All this article asserts is that it differs from the fifth review's 2055.
- The wording of the revaluation provisions — cross-check done. Article 51(1)2 and Enforcement Decree art. 36 were opened at the national statute portal on 26 August 2026 and the quotations matched. The check also surfaced “rounded at the fourth decimal place,” now recorded in the body.
As of July 2026. The formula, constants, age table and A value are the National Pension Service's own; the year-by-year expansion and the checks are our arithmetic. Your own amount depends on your contribution history — the authoritative figure is the NPS “my pension” lookup. For an estimate use the national pension calculator, for adding years six ways to increase your pension, for timing early versus deferred.
