Korean NPS Disability Pension Eligibility and Assessment Date Calculator

Check Korean NPS disability eligibility before assuming ten years are necessary

A person whose illness or injury prevents continued work needs to check contribution conditions and claim timing before budgeting a pension.
Korean National Pension disability benefits have three alternative contribution tests, including a coverage-period ratio and a recent-contribution test.
A total below ten years therefore does not automatically exclude a claim.
This tool prepares a record-based screening worksheet under Korean rules checked on 2026-11-07.

Enter the coverage history and medical dates, then inspect each contribution route, excluded period and assessment date separately.
The calculator does not diagnose a disability, assign a medical grade, establish the legally accepted first examination date or issue an entitlement decision.
For an amount-focused comparison, follow the related survivor and disability pension calculator.
These are Korean NPS rules, not another country’s disability insurance system or Korea’s separate means-tested disability pension.

Prepare the records and identify the right dates

The full birth date determines age boundaries, while the planned claim date represents an assumed filing date, not a consultation reservation or certificate date.
The example is fictional and its records are initially unconfirmed.
Confirm evidence only after checking your own documents, and recalculate after editing an input.
Unresolved records must remain visible instead of being treated as zero contributions.

Build the coverage-period denominator correctly

National Pension Act Article 3(1)19 defines the period used as the denominator.
For ordinary monthly records, NPS explains the baseline as the month after the eighteenth birthday through the month before the first examination.
This denominator differs from the sum of paid contribution months.
The history separates the following legal reasons rather than treating every nonworking period alike.

• Periods excluded from NPS under the proviso to Article 6, including relevant occupational pension coverage, are excluded.
  
• Qualifying student or no-income exclusions under Article 9(3), and ordinary contribution exemptions, are excluded from age 18 to under 27.
  
• Military-service contribution exemptions under Article 91(1)2 are also excluded at age 27 and above.
  
• A no-income spouse exclusion and an ordinary exemption at age 27 or above are not automatically removed under the same rule.
  
• Eligible excluded months lawfully paid through additional contributions before the first examination are included again, subject to the actual payment date and credited records.
  

Read all three contribution routes

Missing months describe an arithmetic shortfall at the first examination.
They do not promise that paying the same number today repairs a past claim.
Later arrears payments, additional contributions and repayment of a refund have distinct legal effects, including Article 54 timing issues.
Confirm the effect on the particular illness or injury before making an additional payment.

Check onset age and payment exclusions separately

The first examination generally must occur from age 18 until before ordinary old-age pension age; a person insured below 18 has an exception from the actual enrollment date.
The ordinary ages used here are 60 for births through 1952, 61 for 1953–1956, 62 for 1957–1960, 63 for 1961–1964, 64 for 1965–1968 and 65 from 1969 onward.
The comparison uses the birthday, not merely a subtraction of calendar years.
Under Civil Act Articles 158–160, a February 29 birth reaches the relevant age on March 1 in a non-leap year.

Article 67(3) excludes specified occupational-coverage periods and periods of emigration or loss of Korean nationality at the first examination.
Special-occupation old-age and early old-age pension entitlements can also affect coverage exclusions under Enforcement Decree Article 18; suspension of early old-age pension payment has an exception.
Travel abroad is not automatically emigration.
Answer the separate question about status on the exact examination date because a monthly history cannot resolve every within-month change.

A refund and any later repayment require checking which coverage period the refund included.
NPS explains that refunding the coverage period containing the first examination can prevent the corresponding disability entitlement even after repayment.
A refund for a different historical period should not be turned into a universal exclusion without review.
Bring the refund and repayment records to NPS when the result requests additional confirmation.

Four branches for the disability assessment date

1. When a legally recognized cure date occurs before 18 months have passed from the first examination, use the cure date.
   
2. Without a cure date by that point, use the day after the date 18 months from the first examination.
   
3. If the person did not qualify at that assessment point but the same condition later deteriorated, consider the earlier of the claim date and cure date.
   
4. If an entitlement ended after improvement under Article 70(1) and the original condition later deteriorated, also consider the earlier claim or cure date.
   

Deterioration claims have a restriction requiring filing before ordinary old-age pension age.
The displayed deadline is therefore the day before the relevant birthday; it is not a universal deadline for every ordinary first claim.
A cure date exactly on the 18-month anniversary and cases involving different conditions remain subject to agency confirmation.
Calendar months and leap years are used instead of replacing 18 months with 540 days.

Article 54 generally starts monthly payment in the month following the event establishing the benefit.
A later claim from the following month onward can also trigger an assessment of current disability degree using the claim date under Enforcement Decree Article 46-2 and Article 70.
The original assessment date and the later reassessment date are distinct outputs.
The latter does not automatically erase the original retrospective payment period.

Five-year limitation and the different Grade 4 treatment

Article 115 provides a five-year limitation for benefit rights.
The monthly reference schedule runs from the payment-start month through the claim month, using the corresponding month 60 months before the claim as its lower boundary.
NPS’s example of entitlement on 2014-01-25 and a claim on 2020-05-02 includes 2015-05 through 2020-05: 61 monthly buckets.
A rigid maximum of 60 buckets would incorrectly omit a boundary month.

Grade 4 is a lump-sum compensation benefit.
Article 71 deems specified monthly pension amounts to have been paid for 67 months for related legal treatment, including limitation.
It must not be treated like the recurring Grade 1–3 pension or reduced by simply applying one five-year deadline to the entire lump sum.
This tool shows the hypothetical unreduced amount and leaves the limitation-adjusted receipt to NPS review.

Enter the history in a practical order

1. Enter birth, first examination and planned claim dates, then select ordinary assessment, subsequent deterioration or deterioration after entitlement ended.
   
2. Cover the baseline completely with up to eight continuous-status intervals from your records.
   Give each interval its starting and ending credited month.
   
3. Distinguish student, spouse, ordinary exemption, military exemption and arrears reasons.
   Enter the actual additional-payment date when relevant, without overlapping intervals.
   
4. Add earlier paid periods before April 1999 or age 18 where applicable.
   An unentered baseline interval is a record gap rather than confirmed zero payment.
   
5. Confirm exact onset-date status and refund, special-credit and limitation histories.
   Keep evidence unconfirmed when it has not been checked.
   
6. Review each contribution route, the exclusion breakdown and claim dates, then prepare the contribution statement and medical records for an NPS consultation.
   

Do not merge different legal reasons merely to fit eight rows.
Only combine contiguous periods with the same status; a more complex or mixed-month history calls for an agency month-by-month calculation.
The entered personal history is used by the calculator in the page, without submitting the form data to a server.

Worked example: contribution history and claim timing

Grade-based amounts are secondary budget illustrations

The existing amount engine is shared, using the 2026 A-value of KRW 3,193,511 and a uniform coefficient of 1.29.
B represents the revalued average covered income rather than simply the current salary; the reused simplified engine accepts KRW 0–6,370,000.
It omits historical contribution-year coefficients, actual revaluation, changing grades and benefit coordination, so it can differ from an NPS award.
Only assume family members who meet the dependent-allowance conditions.
An amount illustration alongside an unmet or pending result does not establish entitlement.

Practical situations for using the worksheet

Frequently asked questions