The National Pension Service is providing a ‘Total Care Service’ to foreign residents in Korea that allows them to receive the same national pension provided to Korean nationals.

The service includes educating foreigners about the national pension scheme at various counseling centers operated by the NPS. These are located in areas where many foreigners live such as Ansan in Gyeonggi Province. 

There were 1.8 million foreigners residing in Korea as of December 2015 and 30.4 percent of them work in factories doing menial labor. Workers also find it difficult to apply for pensions, as they understand minimal Korean and do not have the time to visit service centers, said an NPS official.

To cater to their needs, the NPS started to provide a call center service in seven different languages in 2014 to make pension application more accessible. It received on average 2,469 calls per month last year.

The counseling centers also began to provide language services. The Ansan Foreign Counseling Center currently provides services in five different languages, which led to a total of 4,477 visits and 5,389 calls from foreign customers last year.

To provide convenience to foreigners in remote regions, the NPS will open another pension counseling center in July in Gimhae, South Gyeongsang Province.

The agency has also launched a “Visiting Counseling Service” in which NPS staff provide information about pension schemes to foreign residents at locations outside service centers, targeting those who do not have time to visit those places.

“The NPS will strive to provide quality services to foreigners once they arrive to Korea and depart for their respective homes countries,” said Bae Seong-hoon, director general of the Center for International Affairs in the NPS.

By Lee Seo-young (seoyounglee@heraldcorp.com)