"Both parents means ₩4.5M" is only half right

Two claims come up constantly when people look into parental leave benefit: that both parents taking it means up to ₩4.5M, and that part of the money is held back until six months after returning to work. Repeat either as it stands today and you will be wrong.

Start with the deferred portion. It is gone.

Now the amount. Parental leave benefit is not the same figure every month. It falls into three bands and steps down as it goes.

So across a full year the first six months and the last six are very different. Plan on the total alone and the back half comes as a shock.

Now the both-parents scheme. Where both parents take leave for the same child and the child is within 18 months of birth, the ceiling rises for the first six months.

But it is not one figure. It is a staircase set by **how many months each parent takes**.

So ₩4.5M attaches to one month, the sixth, and only where each parent completed six. The first two months are ₩2.5M, then ₩3M, ₩3.5M and ₩4M.

One thing follows from that. Taking one more month does not add to that month alone; it opens the whole back end. Going from three months each to four turns month 4 from ₩2M into ₩3.5M.

And if your partner takes less, your staircase is lower too. Take twelve months yourself while your partner takes two, and the staircase is the two-month one. Which is why it has to be decided together.

A single parent has a different table. A parent under 「한부모가족지원법」 has a ceiling of ₩3M rather than ₩2.5M for months 1 to 3. From month 4 it matches the ordinary rates.

Finally, eligibility. The leave must be at least 30 days and the insured unit period before it begins must total at least 180 days. The claim runs from one month after the leave starts until 12 months after it ends.

So: nothing is deferred, and the full amount arrives during the leave. And the both-parents scheme only pays what it looks like if the two of you plan the months together.