Discussions of Korea's national pension usually stop at “how much do I pay, how much do I get.” But life brings other situations. What happens to the pension after a divorce, or the death of a spouse?
Two schemes exist: divided pension and survivor pension. Neither arrives automatically, and missing the deadline destroys the right entirely.
1. What it's worth. A divided pension splits what accrued during the marriage, and it stacks fully with your own old-age pension. A survivor pension does not — choose the old-age pension and only 30% of the survivor pension is added. On ₩1,000,000 old-age plus ₩500,000 survivor, you receive ₩1,150,000.
2. Where the risk is. Neither arrives unless you claim it. The divided pension runs five years from the point all requirements are met — and that is not the divorce date: ① divorced, ② the former spouse holds an old-age pension entitlement, ③ you are 60. All three.
3. What to do. Straight after a divorce, file the advance claim within three years of the divorce taking effect — it removes the risk of misjudging when the clock started.
1. Divided pension — splitting after divorce
Pension accrued during a marriage is treated as jointly built, so it can be divided on divorce.
Four requirements, all needed
| ① Divorce | You must be divorced from the former spouse |
| ② Marriage length | 5+ years of marriage within their contribution period |
| ③ Former spouse | Must be an old-age pension recipient |
| ④ Your age | You must reach your birth-year eligibility age |
Requirement ④ creates the delay — divorce alone doesn't start payments. The service publishes the start ages:
| Birth year | 1953–56 | 1957–60 | 1961–64 | 1965–68 | 1969 and later |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Divided pension starts | 61 | 62 | 63 | 64 | 65 |
Someone born in 1969 who divorced in their forties waits more than twenty years before payments begin. Contact is easily lost over that span, which is why the advance claim matters.
How much?
The service's own wording: it pays “half of the pension amount corresponding to the marriage period, out of the former spouse's old-age pension (excluding dependent allowances).”
- Normally half of the portion attributable to the marriage (excluding dependent allowances).
- For rights arising after December 30, 2016, the ratio can be set differently by agreement or court order.
- The agreement or judgment must use explicit pension terminology to be recognised.
Separation periods are excluded. Following a Constitutional Court decision, time when the marriage existed only on paper is removed from the calculation.
Useful features
- Remarriage doesn't cancel it.
- It stacks with your own old-age pension.
- Multiple divorces can each qualify.
- It works both ways — your former spouse can claim against your pension too.
- The large majority of recipients are women, as it converts homemaking years into pension rights.
- Planning ahead? Check both spouses' records with the pension estimate calculator first.
2. Survivor pension
| Priority | Recipient |
| 1st | Spouse (including de facto) |
| 2nd | Children (under 25, or disability criteria) |
| 3rd | Parents (60+, or disability criteria) |
| 4th | Grandchildren (under 19, or disability criteria) |
| 5th | Grandparents (60+, or disability criteria) |
The amount is based on the deceased's basic pension and rises with their contribution years. The tax accountants' newspaper reports the rates as follows.
| Deceased's contribution period | Rate |
|---|---|
| Under 10 years | 40% of the basic pension (assuming 20 years' enrolment) |
| 10 to under 20 years | 50% |
| 20 years or more | 60% |
Dependent allowances are added on top. Note these rates come from press reporting, because the percentages in the service's own table do not render on the web (see the sources section). Confirm exact figures with the National Pension Service (1355).
For a sense of scale. The same report notes that in 2021 the average monthly survivor pension was ₩297,247 — just 53.4% of the average old-age pension (₩556,502). A survivor pension alone rarely covers living costs.
Spouses face a suspension after three years. Payments run for three years, then pause until a set age: 56 for those born 1953–56, 57 for 1957–60, 58 for 1961–64, 59 for 1965–68, and 60 from 1969 onward.
Exceptions: spouses meeting disability criteria, or those supporting a child under 25, are not suspended.
Without knowing this, people believe the pension was cancelled. It wasn't — it resumes at the specified age.
3. When rights overlap — the 30% figure
If you hold your own old-age pension and a survivor pension right arises, you cannot draw both in full. The common misreading is “you must pick one.” More precisely, choosing your own pension adds a slice of the survivor pension on top.
| Own pension + survivor pension | Adjusted — choosing your own adds 30% of the survivor pension |
| Own pension + divided pension | Both payable in full |
The reported worked example makes it concrete: someone with a ₩1M old-age pension and a ₩500,000 survivor pension who chooses the old-age pension receives 30% of the survivor pension — ₩150,000 — for a total of ₩1.15M a month.
That 30% used to be 20%. The report states the overlap rate “was 20% until December 2016 and rose to 30% thereafter.” Rights that arose before then may still take 20%.
There is also a comparison worth knowing: the same article puts the overlap rate for public-servant and other occupational pensions at 50%, calling the national pension's 30% “considerably lower, raising an equity problem.”
That's the key difference: divided pensions stack in full, survivor pensions add only 30%. The gap between leaving work and the pension starting is covered separately in the income gap guide.
When the five years start, and who ranks where — as written
Deadlines and priority order get worded differently in different guides. Quoting National Pension Act arts. 64 and 73 directly, when the five years begin is the part that most often diverges from the common explanation.
The divided pension's five years do not start at divorce
Art. 64(3) — “a divided pension shall be claimed within five years from the time all the requirements under paragraph (1) are satisfied.” Those requirements are (1) having divorced, (2) the former spouse being an old-age pension recipient, and (3) having reached 60.
The clock starts when all three are met. Divorce at 50 and the starting point is not the divorce but the moment the last condition falls into place. “It has been more than five years since the divorce, so it is gone” is where people give up too early.
| Point | As written | Provision |
|---|---|---|
| Marriage length | five years or more. But “excluding periods in which no substantive marital relationship existed owing to separation, desertion or the like” | art. 64(1) |
| What gets divided | “the amount of the former spouse's old-age pension (excluding dependent allowances) corresponding to the marriage period, divided equally” | art. 64(2) |
| How long it lasts | “from that time, for as long as they live” | art. 64(1) |
Separation and desertion come out of the “marriage period.” It is not simply registration date to divorce date. That wording entered the Act in 2017, following the Constitutional Court's non-conformity decision of 29 December 2016 — the provision says so in its closing note.
Survivor pension — the priority order, and inconsistent age tests
Art. 73(1) sets both. The shared precondition is being someone “whose livelihood was maintained by the deceased at the time of death” — being family is not automatically enough.
| Rank | Survivor | Extra condition |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Spouse | — |
| 2 | Children | under 25, or disabled |
| 3 | Parents (including the spouse's) | 60 or over, or disabled |
| 4 | Grandchildren | under 19, or disabled |
| 5 | Grandparents (including the spouse's) | 60 or over, or disabled |
Children are tested at under 25, grandchildren at under 19 — a six-year gap between two descending generations. And parents-in-law and grandparents-in-law are inside the order.
Payment goes “only to the highest-ranking survivor” (art. 73(2)) — it is not shared down the list. Though if the spouse's entitlement lapses or is suspended, it passes to the children, and where two or more share a rank the amount is “divided equally” (art. 73(3)).
Here is what “30%” comes to in money, set beside the other benchmarks.
4. Applying
| Where | National Pension Service branches (visit, post, fax); some online |
| Divided pension documents | ID, marriage and divorce records, bank details, any agreement or judgment |
| Survivor pension documents | ID, death certificate, family relation records, bank details |
| Enquiries | Call 1355 (free) |
Put the article's two age tables on one axis and a pattern appears that neither of them states.
5. Easy things to miss
- Specify pension division in the divorce agreement if you want a non-standard ratio.
- Use the advance claim within three years — it protects you when contact is later lost.
- Five years extinguishes the right. Ask before assuming it's too late.
- De facto spouses may qualify for survivor pension, but the relationship must be proven.
- Survivor pension rights can end on remarriage.
6. Preparing ahead
- Check each spouse's contribution record (expected pension calculator)
- If only one of you is enrolled, voluntary enrolment is one way to build a pension for each of you. Past 60, voluntary continued enrolment carries it to the day before the 65th birthday.
- Facing a divorce, put the pension split into the property settlement
- On a spouse's death, contact the service as early as you can — a late claim can limit how far back it reaches
Questions you may have
We divorced long ago — still possible?
The five years run from when the right arises. If you haven't reached eligibility age, the clock may not have started — ask the service.
My former spouse isn't drawing a pension yet.
They must be an old-age pension recipient first, so you may need to wait.
Does it reduce their pension?
Yes — the divided portion is deducted from theirs.
Can I receive survivor and basic pension together?
The basic pension is separate, subject to income and asset tests — pension income counts toward those.
If I choose my own pension, do I lose the survivor pension entirely?
No. 30% of it is added on top — 20% if the right arose before December 2016.
Is the pension taxed?
Pension income tax applies, varying by age and amount. See pension withdrawal tax.
What if I'm short of the ten-year minimum?
Voluntary continued enrolment runs to the day before your 65th birthday — covered in the income gap guide.
Sources and where to check
- National Pension Service — divided pension. Source of the four requirements (including “five years or more of marriage within the spouse's contribution period”), the benefit formula (“half of the pension amount corresponding to the marriage period, excluding dependent allowances”) and the birth-year start age table.
- National Pension Service — old-age pension. Lets you compare start ages for the old-age, early and divided pensions in one table.
- KACTA Tax Accountants' Newspaper — “both should be paid”: survivor and old-age pensions (June 2023). Source of the 40 / 50 / 60% survivor rates, the rise from 20% to 30% at December 2016, the ₩1.15M worked example, the 50% occupational-pension comparison, and the 2021 average survivor pension of ₩297,247 (53.4% of the old-age average).
- Korean Law Information Center — statute — National Pension Act art. 64 (divided pension) and art. 73 (scope of survivors) (in force 1 Jan 2026, Act no. 21203). Source for the five-year marriage test and the exclusion of periods without a substantive marital relationship, the three requirements, equal division excluding dependent allowances, the “five years from when all requirements are satisfied” deadline, the five ranks of survivors with their age tests, the livelihood precondition, payment to the highest rank only, and equal division within a rank. Two long-unconfirmed items are now closed.
Written as of July 2026. The divided pension's requirements, benefit formula and start ages come from the National Pension Service; the survivor pension rates, overlap rates and average amounts come from the tax accountants' newspaper. Note that the survivor rates (40/50/60%) could not be checked directly against the service's own page, because the percentages in its table do not render on the web. The five-year claim deadline and the order of survivor priority were quoted directly from National Pension Act arts. 64 and 73 this time — which surfaced both that the five years start when all requirements are met, not at divorce, and that separation periods come out of the “marriage period.” Separately, the three-year advance claim, the three-year suspension for spouses and its release ages, the proof required for a de facto marriage, and the loss of rights on remarriage remain unconfirmed (each sits in a different provision) — the Ministry of Government Legislation site would not open, so the statute could not be quoted directly. Requirements and amounts vary sharply with contribution history and family circumstances, so confirm your own case with the National Pension Service on 1355. This is general information, not legal or financial advice.
