(Graphics by Park Ji-young/The Korea Herald)
(Graphics by Park Ji-young/The Korea Herald)

A local court said Monday it has ordered the state to pay a woman benefits from a pension program subscribed to by her late husband, with whom she had been separated for over 10 years for health reasons without getting divorced.

The Incheon District Court ruled in favor of the woman, who filed a lawsuit against the National Pension Service for survivor pension payouts from her late husband's subscription. The survivor pension program, stipulated in the section 4 of the National Pension Act, refers to pension given to the family members of the beneficiary in case of his or her death.

The state-run pension agency claimed that the plaintiff did not seem to be economically co-dependent on one another, citing the clause that revokes those who have no economic relations with the deceased from receiving the survivor pension. The couple did not file for a divorce, but had been separated from 2009 until the husband's death in March last year.

But the plaintiff told the court that the separation was merely for practical reasons, as the deceased had been suffering from infectious diseases. She pointed out that the husband had been sending money to her and their daughter's bank accounts until shortly before his death, and that the plaintiff had done housekeeping work for the husband’s new home that was only 10-minute drive away from her home.

The court ordered the NPS to reverse its decision in June 2023, in whihc it said it would not pay the plaintiff, and to shoulder all the legal costs related to this case. South Korean law mandates those who lose a trial must cover the legal costs for both sides.


minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com