The Bureau of Labor Insurance (BLI) has stated that old-age pension benefits shall be paid on a monthly basis, from the month the application is filed until the month of the recipient's death. To avoid undue benefit payment, the surviving family members are required to inform the BLI within 30 days of the recipient's death, attaching relevant documents. The payment of the old-age pension benefit will be discontinued from the month following the death of the recipient. The surviving family members may, in the meantime, opt to receive the Difference Between the One-time Old-Age Benefit and Old-age Pension Benefit Already Received (hereinafter referred to as "Old-Age Benefit Difference") or the Survivor Pension.
Since the labor insurance pension system took effect January 1, 2009, more than 1 million people have been benefited from the system. There are over 25,000 cases where the old-age pension benefits have been discontinued by law, because either the death of the recipient was either discovered by BLI through the household registration system, or BLI was notified by surviving family members. Of these cases, 54 cases involved undue payment, because of the failure of the surviving members in reporting the death to the household registration authority and to the BLI in a timely manner. The BLI will seek these excessive payments from surviving family members accordingly.
To guarantee a basic standard of living to insured persons and their family members, the government has incorporated a provision in the labor insurance pension system. It is stipulated therein that, when someone dies during the period of receiving old-age pension benefits, the qualified beneficiaries or qualified applicants for the survivors pension benefit may, on notifying BLI of the death of the recipient, advise BLI at the same time their decision whether to opt for the Old-Age Benefit Difference or the Survivor Pension. According to statistics, among the aforementioned 25,000 cases or more, over 16,000 opted for the Old-Age Benefit Difference, which accounted for 65% of all. More than 4,600 opted for survivor pension payment, which accounted for 18% of all.
The BLI reminds the public that surviving family members should notify the BLI in a timely manner upon the death of a recipient of the BLI old-age pension benefit, so as to protect their rights to receive the Old-Age Benefit Difference or the Survivor Pension Payment, and to avoid instances of seeking recovery of overpaid amounts.