Korean National Pension Timing Calculator

The national pension normally starts at a set age, but you can bring it forward by up to 5 years or put it off by up to 5 years. Claiming early cuts the monthly amount and deferring raises it, while changing how long you draw it. This calculator takes your birth year, years of membership and the basic pension amount from the pension service's lookup, works out the monthly figure for each option, and shows the break-even age at which an early or deferred choice reaches the same cumulative total as claiming on time.

There is a reason the basic pension amount must be entered by hand. It depends on two published figures, the average income of all members and the year-by-year revaluation rates, and the revaluation table sits in an attachment to the notice rather than its text, so it could not be verified. Rather than fabricate a plausible number, the calculator takes the pension service's figure and computes everything after that strictly from the statute.

People approaching retirement who are weighing whether to claim early or defer. If income has stopped and the start age is still years away, claiming early is tempting; if you are still working, deferring for a larger pension appeals. Which is better depends on how long you live, so there is no single answer, but knowing the break-even age gives you a benchmark.

Anyone with fewer than 20 years of membership should also look. With barely 10 years the pension starts at 50% of the basic amount, and stacking an early-claim reduction on top makes the monthly figure far smaller than expected. Seeing that number helps decide whether voluntary continued membership to add years is worthwhile.

The starting age is 60 under 국민연금법 제61조제1항, pushed later by birth year under 부칙 제21조; anyone born in 1969 or later starts at 65. The membership rate under 제63조제1항 is the full basic amount at 20 years or more, and from 10 years it starts at 50% and rises 5 percentage points a year. Early claiming under 제63조제2항 cuts 6 percentage points for each year brought forward, 30% at 5 years; deferral under 제62조제2항 adds 0.6% for each month, 36% at 5 years.

The calculation multiplies the basic pension amount by the membership rate, then by the timing adjustment, and adds the dependant supplement unchanged. Under 제52조 the supplement is ₩306,630 a year for a spouse and ₩204,360 a year for each child or parent (the 2026 notice), and the timing adjustment does not touch it. The break-even age solves for the point where the cumulative totals of the two choices are equal. One interpretation should be noted: the statute lists early-claim rates as "70% at 55" and so on, written when the start age was 60, so the calculator reads it as 6 percentage points per year brought forward from your own start age.

Take the calculator's defaults: born in 1980, 25 years of membership, a basic pension amount of ₩1,000,000 a month. The start age is 65, and with more than 20 years, claiming on time means ₩1,000,000 a month from 65. Claiming 5 years early at 60 reduces it to 70%, or ₩700,000, in exchange for five extra years of payments. The cumulative totals of the two choices meet at 76 years and 8 months; live longer than that and claiming on time comes out ahead.

Deferring 5 years to 70 instead gives 136%, or ₩1,360,000. That is ₩360,000 more a month, but it starts five years later, so the cumulative total only overtakes claiming on time at 83 years and 11 months. Had the same person only 15 years of membership, the starting point would be 75% of the basic amount, ₩750,000, before the early or deferred adjustment.

The first is reading "70% at 55" literally and assuming you can claim at 55. That wording dates from when the start age was 60; today you can only bring your own start age forward by up to 5 years. The second is expecting the reduction to be restored once you reach the normal start age. The rate, once set, applies for life. The third is treating the break-even age as a prediction of how long you will live. It is a yardstick to set against life expectancy, to be weighed alongside health and other income.

The fourth is overlooking the conditions for early claiming. The early old-age pension can only be claimed if you are not engaged in income-earning work, and earning income while receiving it can reduce the amount. The fifth is applying the timing adjustment to the dependant supplement; it is added at face value. The calculator covers the old-age pension only, so divided, survivor and disability pensions follow their own provisions and must be checked separately.