Korea injected nearly 14 trillion won ($13.5 billion) in taxpayers’ money over the past five years to compensate for growing deficits in pension funds for government employees and military officers.

According to data released by the Ministry of Strategy and Finance, the government subsidy for civil servants’ pension fund hit a new record high of 2 trillion won in 2013. The government also disbursed 1.3 trillion won last year to make up for the shortfall in the military service pension fund.

The combined subsidy is expected to reach 3.8 trillion won this year, which has already been reflected in the government’s budget, up from 3.3 trillion won in 2013.

Experts have suggested that the government subsidy for those pension funds will snowball with the rapid aging of the population, reaching 4.8 trillion won in 2018 and 7.8 trillion won in 2022.

(596story@heraldcorp.com)