Gov't easing up on divorce pension division

By Kim Hyun-bin

The government is seeking to amend the law, to allow divorced people to live off their former spouses' pension if they were married for more than one year.

According to the Ministry of Health and Welfare, Sunday, a bill to revise the pension-splitting protocol has been submitted to the National Assembly, and lawmakers are discussing the issue.

The current law stipulates that a divorced individual, who was married for at least five years and meets several requirements, is eligible to demand some of pension from their former partner.

The conditions also require spouses to be registered as pensioners and recipients to be 65 _ the age of eligibility.

In recent years, there has been a surge in the number of people who have been receiving a divided pension, from 6,106 in 2011 to 25,302 in 2017. Experts attribute the rise to more elderly couples filing for divorce.

As of August, more than 27,000 people were receiving a divided pension _ 88.3 percent of them women.

The pension is divided through negotiations between the couples or settled through a court ruling.