Korean Disability Retirement Pension Choice Calculator

Choosing a pension when disability leads to retirement

An official or teacher leaving work after cancer, a stroke or an accident needs a reliable household income as well as money for treatment.
This Korea-based 2026 calculator compares the retirement pension with the non-duty disability benefit before the first benefit choice.
Public-school teachers use the public officials’ scheme; eligible private-school staff use the private-school pension scheme.
All amounts are in KRW and use Korean rules.

The two monthly pensions cannot simply be added together.
Retirement lump-sum coordination is a separate question that should be confirmed with GEPS or TP for the actual claim.
Until that coordination is known, the calculator shows components and withholds the overall ranking.
Changing an award that has already been paid, returning earlier benefits and later switching pensions require separate advice.

Confirm applicability and the pension disability grade

Credited service can differ from calendar employment.
Use the pension service’s records for military-service credits, combined service, leave and contribution history.
Private-school service beyond the applicable retirement age may be excluded under Article 42(2).
National Pension disability benefits, the basic pension and disability welfare benefits are separate systems.

Three income bases and the meaning of tax inputs

• Disability-benefit income base: the confirmed monthly base for the month of the benefit event, which may differ from basic pay or take-home salary.
  
• Income immediately before retirement: the base for the month containing the day before retirement, used for the retirement lump sum.
  If disability arises later, confirm whether this differs from the disability-benefit base.
  
• Career-average income base: the average used in the retirement-pension reference formula.
  Replacing this with the final month’s income can overstate the estimate.
  
• Assumed effective tax rate: your scenario for the share of the gross retirement pension paid as tax.
  It does not calculate pension deductions, taxable service periods, dependants or total income tax.
  A 0% input can mean tax omitted; it is not an exemption decision.
  

Income Tax Act Article 12(4)(a) exempts the non-duty disability pensions of public officials and private-school staff.
This does not establish a zero tax amount for every lump sum.
Enter confirmed retirement lump-sum tax separately.
Disability lump-sum tax is not calculated, so an upfront amount in a grade 8+ case is not a confirmed final take-home award.

Non-duty disability benefit rates

The model multiplies the income base by the statutory rate and discards sub-won fractions.
Longer service does not add to these disability rates.
Do not substitute the separate duty-related disability table.
Intentional misconduct or gross negligence, failure to attend examinations, revised grades and payment suspension require separate review and are not automatically applied.

Immediate retirement-pension start and the 1.7% model

Public Officials Pension Act Article 43(1)(5), together with Decree Article 40, provides a disability-based pension start for at least 10 years of service and pension disability grades 1–7.
The tool does not apply an early-retirement reduction merely because the person is young.
Grade 8+ does not meet this disability-based immediate-start condition.
Enter the pension-service-confirmed delay under the actual start rules; current age is a worksheet field and does not automatically select a general pension start age.

This reference formula omits historical accrual rules, year-specific rates and income redistribution.
Use the official expected-benefit monthly amount whenever available, especially for long service.
Do not reverse-engineer an income input merely to make the simple model match a known award.
The approximate service crossover compares monthly amounts only; it does not establish the entitlement earned by working additional years.

Retirement lump sum and the contribution floor

If the formula is below contributions paid plus the legally specified interest, a floor may apply.
Enter a confirmed contribution-plus-interest floor, or use the official gross lump-sum amount, which takes priority.
A zero floor means the floor may be omitted, not that the formula is necessarily the complete statutory award.
The model does not invent a contribution history or an interest amount.

At a 5,200,000 KRW base, the formula gives 81,120,000 KRW for 15 years and 143,650,000 KRW for 25 years.
The retirement allowance is a different benefit and is excluded from this comparison.
Do not add it to the lump-sum input.
Adding a common payment to only one scenario would distort the comparison.

Benefit coordination and a pending overall ranking

Article 40(4) prohibits paying the Article 43 retirement pension together with the Article 59 non-duty disability benefit.
The latter includes both the disability pension and the disability lump sum, so a grade 8+ disability lump sum must not be assumed to coexist with an unadjusted retirement pension.
The tool also avoids extending that sentence into a blanket conclusion that every retirement lump sum is mutually exclusive.
Obtain claim-specific coordination guidance for your service and payment history.

• Unknown: the tool displays the disability component and retirement lump-sum reference but does not treat an unconfirmed coordination amount as a confirmed zero.
  The overall ranking and two-option break-even remain pending.
  
• Separately payable, confirmed: the retirement lump sum after entered tax is added to the disability option once.
  Under 10 years, there is no monthly retirement-pension alternative; the same coordination confirmation is used.
  
• Not separately payable, confirmed: no retirement lump sum is added to the disability option in this supplied scenario.
  This is not stated as the general legal rule for every member.
  

If duty-related and non-duty disability entitlements arise together, consider the separate choice under Pension Act Article 41(3) and Accident Compensation Act Article 20(7).
Review the duty-related calculator and discuss claim order with the service.
The tool does not claim that filing first necessarily destroys the other right.
Ask in writing about changes, repayment and any later pension switch.

From benefit records to a consultation worksheet

1. Retrieve expected benefits, credited service and income-base records from the pension service.
   Use the pension assessment grade rather than treating a medical certificate alone as the final award.
   
2. Select the scheme and entitlement evidence, then enter service years, extra months and the disability grade.
   Private-school staff should confirm actual scheme membership.
   
3. Enter the three income bases and official monthly retirement pension.
   Use the reference formula only if needed and retain the estimation label.
   
4. Confirm retirement lump-sum coordination, gross amount, tax and contribution floor.
   For grade 8+, obtain the actual pension delay in months.
   
5. Choose a comparison horizon and discount rate.
   Read monthly living income, upfront cash and long-term receipts together, then save the TXT worksheet.
   
6. Prepare the pension disability certificate, circumstances statement and expected-benefit record.
   Ask about coordination, switching, reductions and claim procedure in writing.
   Editing inputs clears the previous result so it can be recalculated from current values.
   

Worked examples: 15, 25 and 8 years of service

The 15- and 25-year cases use a 4,500,000 KRW career-average base and 0% assumed tax.
At 15 years the disability pension is 35,500 KRW higher per month; at 25 years the retirement monthly pension is higher.
A 5% effective-tax assumption in the 15-year case reduces the retirement pension to 1,090,125 KRW, creating a 92,875 KRW monthly gap.
In the 8-year case, add the 27,846,000 KRW retirement lump sum to the disability option only after separate payment has been confirmed.

How the monthly difference accumulates

This explanatory table excludes lump-sum coordination.
The interactive result includes a separately payable retirement lump sum when confirmed, which can change the total and crossover even with unchanged monthly amounts.
No future pension increases or inflation are forecast.
The horizon is the period you want to inspect, not a life-expectancy prediction.

Reading present value and break-even

Present value converts future receipts into today’s modeled value.
The annual effective discount rate becomes a monthly rate of (1 + annual rate / 100)^(1/12) − 1.
Monthly benefits are paid at month end, while an upfront lump sum is treated as immediate.
A delayed retirement pension has no receipts during its waiting months.
The discount assumption is neither an official pension yield nor a forecast investment return.

Break-even here means the first strict reversal of the initial advantage between the retirement-pension and disability options.
In the 25-year case, if a separate 143,650,000 KRW retirement lump sum is confirmed alongside the disability pension, and assumed tax and discount are both zero, the retirement pension first exceeds the disability option at 197 months.
Nominal and discounted reversal months can differ.
No reversal within 1,200 months does not establish permanent superiority.

The overall ranking uses present value over your selected horizon.
A household needing immediate treatment cash may prefer a different cash-flow pattern from the highest long-term present value.
The approximate service threshold uses only the 1.7% monthly model and does not replace historical accruals, statutory eligibility or actual service credits.

Household scenarios and costs outside the model

Health and long-term care insurance, caregiving costs, disability deductions and the income treatment of other welfare benefits depend on household facts.
A larger pension is not automatically an equal increase in household disposable income.
Duty recognition, reappointment and second retirement, divorce-related division and prior lump-sum receipts require claim-specific advice.

Frequently asked questions