Korean Public Official Survivor Benefit Choice Calculator

Korean survivor benefits split into “one benefit you choose” and “amounts paid on top”

This calculator compares the survivor benefits available when a Korean public official or private-school staff member dies in service or while receiving a retirement pension.
Whether the family takes the monthly retirement survivor pension, the one-off retirement survivor pension lump sum, or—once a duty death is recognized—the duty-death or hazardous-duty survivor pension can change what they receive over 20 years by hundreds of millions of won.
Choosing a lump sum in a hurry after the funeral, or learning too late that the spouse’s own pension halves the survivor pension, is hard to undo.

Enter the figures from the Government Employees Pension Service (GEPS) and your family situation to see the available choices, the supplements and compensation added to them, the break-even month and the claim deadlines on one screen.
The page does not predict whether a duty death will be recognized.
It shows side by side how much depends on whether the same facts are recognized as a non-duty death, a duty death or a hazardous-duty death, which is the starting point for deciding whether a duty claim or a review request is worth preparing.

1. Benefits you choose between and benefits paid in common

The calculator therefore converts each choice into “upfront amount + monthly pension × period”.
Putting a common item on only one side would exaggerate the effect of the choice, so compensation is added equally to every option in a duty branch, and the condolence grant and retirement allowance appear on separate cards.

2. Timing of death and the 10-year line decide the menu

Retirement survivor benefits depend on whether the deceased had a pension right—10 or more years of service—and when the death occurred.
The duty-death pension has no service requirement, so a recognized duty death opens a pension option even with under 10 years of service.

If a family chose the retirement survivor pension lump sum after an in-service death with 10 or more years and a duty death is later recognized, Article 41(5) lets them choose again between that lump sum and the duty-death pension.
With under 10 years, Article 41(6) offers the survivor lump sum or the duty-death pension.
Retirement survivor benefits already paid are deducted from the duty survivor benefit under Accident Compensation Act Article 20(3)–(4), so read the totals here as “everything received from the date of death”.

3. The retirement survivor pension is 60% of the deceased’s pension

Under Public Officials Pension Act Article 55(1), the retirement survivor pension is 60% of the retirement (or early-retirement) pension the deceased received or would have received.
The 70% transitional rule for existing officials introduced in 2010 (Act No. 9905, Addenda Article 11) was deleted by Act No. 13387, Addenda Article 13, effective January 1, 2016, and survives only for people already receiving a survivor pension before then.
Deaths from 2016 onward therefore use 60%, regardless of when the official was appointed.

If the death occurred after retirement but before the pension started, the proviso to Article 55(1) uses the early-retirement pension the deceased could have received at death.
The Article 43(2) percentage for the years remaining until the start age applies, and a gap of more than five years is treated as four-to-five years (75%).
The example below assumes a retirement pension equivalent of KRW 2,000,000 a month.

4. The pension lump-sum formula and amounts by years of service

After an in-service death with 10 or more years of service, Article 54(4) lets the family take this retirement survivor pension lump sum instead of the survivor pension and supplement.
With under 10 years, only the retirement survivor lump sum (Article 58), using the same formula, is available.
Unlike the simplified lump-sum estimate in the general public servant pension calculator, this page applies the statutory formula directly.

5. Supplement and special supplement

6. Duty-death and hazardous-duty survivor pension rates

Under Accident Compensation Act Articles 36 and 38, the duty-death survivor pension is 38% of the income basis and the hazardous-duty survivor pension is 43%, plus 5% per survivor, with the add-on capped at 20% in total.
The income basis is adjusted to 50–160% of the all-official average under Article 10(2).
With the average of KRW 5,950,000 from May 1, 2026, the floor is KRW 2,975,000 and the cap KRW 9,520,000.

• Hazardous-duty scope: a hazardous-duty death requires that an accident during a hazardous duty listed in Article 5—such as police arrests or firefighting and rescue—was the direct cause.
  
• Halving differs: if the survivor receives an own public retirement pension, Article 20(6) halves the duty-death pension, but it does not list the hazardous-duty pension, so the calculator keeps that pension in full.
  
• Death after retirement: for a duty death after retirement, Enforcement Decree Article 17(2) uses the income basis at retirement and the average on the day before retirement.
  

7. Compensation, condolence grant and retirement allowance are common items

Compensation is based on the all-official average, not the deceased’s income, so it is the same regardless of grade.
The condolence grant and retirement allowance examples assume a KRW 5 million income basis and 25 years of service.
Retirement allowance rates are 6.5% for 1 to under 5 years, 22.75% for 5 to under 10, 29.25% for 10 to under 15, 32.5% for 15 to under 20 and 39% for 20 years or more, with a 33-year cap.

8. Worked example: in-service death after 25 years

Assume an income basis of KRW 5,000,000, a retirement pension equivalent of KRW 1,912,500, three survivors counted, a 240-month comparison and a 0% discount rate.

For the same deceased, the best choice differs by KRW 688,350,000 nominal over 240 months between a non-duty death and a recognized hazardous-duty death, and by KRW 503,400,000 for an ordinary duty death.
The best-choice-by-branch table shows this gap and can support a duty claim or a review request after a rejection.

9. What moves the result: period, discount rate and halving

10. Step-by-step use

1. Choose the scheme (public official or private-school staff) and the status at death.
   
2. Choose the death type claimed or expected.
   Every branch—non-duty, duty and hazardous duty—is calculated, and the selected branch is marked with ★.
   
3. Enter service, the income basis and the deceased’s retirement pension equivalent using the pension service’s figures.
   
4. For a death after retirement but before the start, enter the years short; for a death while receiving the pension, enter the months received.
   
5. Check the survivors counted, the average, whether the spouse was married during service and whether the survivor receives an own public pension.
   
6. Enter the expected period, discount rate and decision dates, calculate, and save the TXT worksheet for the consultation.
   

Number fields accept commas and keep your draft while editing; changing an input hides the previous result, so calculate again with the new conditions.

11. Claim deadlines and appeals

• Limitation: the right to benefits lapses five years after the event (Pension Act Article 88(1); Accident Compensation Act Article 54(1)); the condolence grant, an assistance benefit, lapses after three years.
  
• Changing the benefit type: under Enforcement Decree Article 48(1), the choice can be changed before payment or within 30 days of the first payment, returning amounts received with interest.
  
• Duty-death claim: after the head-of-agency confirmation (Accident Compensation Act Article 9(2)), the review committee decides; duty and hazardous-duty survivor claims can be filed together.
  For disease deaths, families may ask to take part in the epidemiological investigation (Article 57-2).
  
• Appeal: file a review request by the earlier of 180 days from the decision or 90 days from learning of it (Pension Act Article 87(2); Accident Compensation Act Article 51(2)).
  Administrative appeals are not available; the review request or an administrative lawsuit is the route.
  
• Settlement after a hazardous-duty decision: if a hazardous-duty death is decided after duty survivor benefits were paid, those benefits are deducted (Accident Compensation Act Article 19(1)).
  

Deadlines exclude the first day under the Civil Act and may move to the next business day if they fall on a holiday.

12. Tax, private-school staff and who counts as a survivor

• Survivors: the spouse, children, parents, grandchildren and grandparents the deceased supported at death; the spouse must have been married to the deceased (including de facto) during service.
  
• Children’s age: under 19 or in a disability state for retirement survivor benefits (Pension Act Article 3(2)) and under 25 for accident survivor benefits (Accident Compensation Act Article 3(2)).
  
• Ranking and shares: survivors of the same rank share equally (Accident Compensation Act Article 11); the calculator shows household totals, so confirm individual shares with the agency.
  
• Veterans compensation: under the proviso to Article 20(5), veterans compensation is not deducted from duty survivor benefits; apply separately to the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs.
  

13. Frequently asked questions