Preparing for Korean internal-disability registration in 2026
A diagnosis or a treatment bill alone does not establish disability registration in South Korea.
The functional impairment, adequate treatment, medical records, test conditions and permissible assessment timing must be considered together.
This calculator prepares a discussion worksheet under the pancreatic-disability addition and revised internal-disability rules effective July 1, 2026.
The decision this worksheet supports
Identify whether to discuss an assessment certificate now or first confirm a treatment period, test result or supporting record.
National Pension Service (NPS) review determines the final disability level; this result does not approve registration or government benefits.
Copy documented values for planning and do not change treatment based on this calculator.
What the calculator checks and what evidence means
Criteria and dates by organ
Check conditional severity pathways and calendar timing references for pancreatic, liver, stoma/urinary and cardiac disability.
The respiratory addition checks the tracheostomy plus continuous 24-hour ventilation timing exception and lung-transplant pathway.
Standard respiratory severity still requires separate lung-function, blood-gas and clinical assessment.
Verified, assumed and unknown
Distinguish medical-record evidence from hypothetical consultation inputs.
Leave an unavailable value blank or unknown; it is never treated as a normal result or an automatic failure.
Assumed inputs may show a calendar reference, but the conditional severity result remains withheld until the required evidence is confirmed.
Pancreatic C-peptide and simultaneous glucose thresholds
The severe pancreatic pathway requires persistent, serious endocrine impairment despite adequate treatment.
Intensive treatment means multiple daily insulin injections with basal insulin at least once daily and a bolus at every meal, or an insulin pump.
A medicine name or the number of injections alone is insufficient to classify the regimen.
Each test must satisfy both conditions
- Simultaneously measured plasma glucose must be at least 140 mg/dL.
- Blood C-peptide must be below 0.6 ng/mL, or spot-urine C-peptide/creatinine ratio below 0.2 nmol/mmol.
- 140 is included; 0.6 and 0.2 are excluded because those thresholds are strict.
Number and timing of tests
For an initial assessment, both qualifying tests must be within the preceding six months and at least three calendar months apart.
For reassessment, check one qualifying test within the preceding three months.
Enter tests in chronological order and keep blood units distinct from the spot-urine ratio units.
Confirm simultaneous testing, continued insulin administration and, after a hyperglycemic emergency, at least two weeks of adequate glucose control before the test.
Do not stop insulin or change a dose to meet a glucose value or test schedule; follow the clinician’s testing instructions.
Six-month treatment period and pancreatic exceptions
Standard initial assessment
The timing reference is the latest of first diagnosis plus six months, continuous intensive treatment plus six months, specialist care or accepted records plus three months, and the July 1 effective date.
Relevant tests, persistent impairment and other conditions must also pass before the worksheet indicates readiness to discuss assessment.
For a transfer between providers, ask the assessing specialist which previous records can be accepted.
Total pancreatectomy or two positive autoantibody types
The notice permits diagnosis without waiting for the treatment period when total pancreatectomy makes permanent impairment clear or at least two autoantibody types are positive.
Enter the surgery or positive-antibody confirmation date; the calculator does not turn that period exception into an exemption from specialist records or C-peptide testing.
Two tests of the same antibody do not mean two different positive antibody types.
A pancreas transplant follows a separate non-severe pathway.
Liver disability: Child-Pugh class and recent complications
Liver assessment considers residual function and complications of chronic liver disease.
Enter the clinician-confirmed Child-Pugh score based on the better condition among repeated tests within the last six months, rather than selecting only the worst result.
Class A is 5–6 points, B is 7–9, and C is 10–15 in this input.
Severe-disability pathway
Class C follows this pathway, while class B also requires at least one qualifying complication within the last six months.
These are refractory ascites or pleural effusion, hepatic encephalopathy, hepatorenal syndrome, variceal bleeding, and spontaneous bacterial peritonitis or pleuritis.
The bleeding definition also includes portal hypertensive gastrointestinal bleeding.
Timing and transplantation
The standard pathway checks at least one year from first diagnosis, at least two months of recent active treatment, and persistent impairment.
Ordinary fluid retention or a temporary abnormal result cannot substitute for the notice’s refractory-complication definition.
A liver transplant follows the non-severe pathway and the notice’s reassessment exemption.
If the complication date or the selection of the better repeated result is unconfirmed, retain the additional-evidence state.
For class B, a complication older than six months does not satisfy the current input condition, but this is not a permanent rejection of future registration.
Stomas, reversal and serious bowel or urinary dysfunction
The pathway depends on stoma configuration, qualifying complications and reversibility.
An intestinal stoma together with a urinary stoma or cystostomy, at least two intestinal stomas, terminal jejunostomy with at least two-thirds of the small bowel removed, or an intestinal/urinary stoma with a qualifying complication follows the severe pathway.
A single intestinal or urinary stoma or cystostomy follows the non-severe pathway; a fistula with cystostomy alone is not automatically upgraded like an intestinal/urinary-stoma complication.
What can still qualify after reversal
Serious bowel dysfunction after reversal concerns loss of control of both liquid and solid stool due to sphincter damage or neurological abnormality, supported by imaging or objective sphincter-function tests showing substantial impairment.
Serious urinary dysfunction requires the applicable continuous intermittent catheterization (CIC), neobladder or injury-related complete-incontinence situation together with the required objective evidence, such as markedly reduced or absent detrusor contraction on urodynamic testing.
Frequent stools or age-related incontinence alone should not be marked as confirming these requirements.
For a reversible stoma, the timing reference is one year after creation; for an irreversible stoma, assessment after creation requires specialist confirmation.
The calculator does not invent a uniform one-year wait for severe post-reversal bowel dysfunction or serious urinary dysfunction without a stoma.
Enter the specialist-confirmed assessment date for those pathways and confirm the detailed objective criteria.
Prepare surgical records, pathology and complication documentation for the reversibility and timing discussion.
Cardiac scores, Fontan surgery and the respiratory exception
Enter both a verified score and the matching symptom row
Use the specialist-confirmed clinical and test total under items (a)–(g) of notice section 10.
The rows are at least 30 points with symptoms at rest, 25–29 with symptoms beyond personal tasks, and 20–24 with symptoms beyond light household activity.
A score of 20 alone, or personal exercise intolerance, does not establish severe disability.
Fontan surgery has a non-severe pathway; a fully confirmed severe pathway takes priority when present.
Treatment, relevant admission and respiratory timing
Standard cardiac and Fontan pathways still check at least a year of diagnosis and continuous treatment with persistent impairment.
When a relevant admission affects evaluation, the reference also considers stable assessment two months after discharge.
Heart transplantation follows a separate non-severe pathway with reassessment exemption.
For chronic respiratory disease, maintaining both a tracheostomy and continuous 24-hour ventilation for six months permits the exception before one year after first diagnosis.
The standard respiratory pathway calculates only the one-year diagnosis and two-month active-treatment timing reference, leaving severity for separate assessment.
Lung transplantation has its own non-severe pathway and reassessment exemption.
Step-by-step use and supporting documents
- Select the disability type and assessment date.
The implemented rule window is July 1 through December 31, 2026; other dates require verification of the rules then in force.
- Copy dates, units and values from actual medical records and test reports.
Keep evidence assumed or unknown when preparing an unverified consultation scenario.
- Confirm specialist requirements, treatment history, persistence and any reason to defer assessment for recovery after treatment or surgery.
Check pancreatic test intervals, the better repeated liver result and complication dates, or the cardiac score with its matching symptom row.
- Separate missing evidence, unmet conditions and waiting periods, then ask the specialist for assessment certificates, surgical records and objective test documentation.
Check the registration application and additional documents with the community office for the registered address.
- Save the TXT worksheet or print the current worksheet for discussion.
The ICS event includes only the reference date and a generic title, without test values or detailed diagnoses.
Preparation checkboxes do not automatically confirm clinical conditions.
Worked examples and threshold boundaries
Fictional example 1: initial pancreatic assessment
Suppose diagnosis, continuous intensive treatment and specialist records begin on 2026-01-20, with tests on 2026-04-20 and 2026-07-20.
Both blood C-peptide values are 0.59 ng/mL and simultaneous glucose values are 140 mg/dL, with all record, persistence and test-condition confirmations satisfied.
At assessment date 2026-07-20, the result follows the severe pathway and displays timing reference 2026-07-20.
Changing a C-peptide value to 0.6 fails the strict threshold; changing simultaneous glucose to 139 fails the glucose condition.
Fictional example 2: liver class B and a reversible stoma
At assessment date 2026-10-20, a nine-point class-B liver result includes a qualifying complication dated 2026-04-20 at the six-month boundary, but excludes a record only dated 2026-04-19.
Separately, a reversible stoma created on 2025-10-31 has a one-year reference of 2026-10-31, leaving 11 days from 2026-10-20.
Both examples still require the relevant records, permanent impairment and detailed specialist confirmations.
Reassessment and interpretation limits
Pancreatic reassessment generally repeats every two years after the actual initial or previous decision.
After disability is confirmed in three reassessments, exemption may be granted; the number alone does not grant it.
Total pancreatectomy is exempt under the notice, while the non-pancreatic organ-transplant exemption must not be copied to pancreas transplantation.
Non-transplant liver, cardiac and respiratory cases use a reference for a designated assessment after two years, and reversible stomas after three years; the actual notice controls.
Keep timing separate from benefit eligibility
References add calendar months and clamp missing month-end dates to the last day of the target month.
No public-holiday filing extension is calculated.
A reassessment reference after 2026 is a plan under 2026 rules and needs a fresh rule check.
Walking impairment, disability parking permits, pension severity and payment eligibility have separate criteria; a severe registration pathway is not converted into automatic entitlement.
An unmet input condition is neither a final registration rejection nor a prediction of treatment outcome.
Frequently asked questions
Does a diabetes diagnosis alone qualify?
No; intensive insulin treatment, persistence, C-peptide, simultaneous glucose, test timing and medical records must be checked together, and NPS review determines the final level.
Do two positive autoantibody types waive the two tests?
The treatment-period exception is not treated as a test exemption, so the calculator checks specialist records and qualifying test evidence separately.
Are C-peptide 0.6 and urine ratio 0.2 included?
Both are excluded by strict less-than thresholds, while simultaneous plasma glucose of 140 mg/dL is included by the at-least threshold.
Can an old complication qualify liver class B?
Use a qualifying complication within six months and the better repeated result; an old record alone does not satisfy the current condition.
Does stoma reversal always end the relevant pathway?
No; objectively confirmed serious bowel dysfunction after reversal has a pathway, requiring specialist confirmation of sphincter damage, functional impairment and assessment timing.
Does Fontan surgery automatically waive the one-year records?
The non-severe Fontan pathway is checked separately from ongoing record, treatment and persistence requirements, without copying the transplant exception.
Does a severe result guarantee a pension or parking permit?
No; walking impairment, pension severity, income and other eligibility conditions and actual agency decisions require separate checks.
What happens to assumed or unknown inputs?
You can review a timing reference and evidence checklist, but the conditional degree stays withheld before required confirmations are complete.
Official sources and update requirements
Rule effective date: 2026-07-01; primary-source verification date: 2026-10-20.
The National Law Information OPEN API was called directly to verify current status, effective dates, text and the attached complete notice.
The effective date of Enforcement Rule Annex 1 is kept separate from other article-specific effective dates.
Recheck later amendments, individual test or record-recognition exceptions, actual specialist timing, reversibility, reassessment notices and independent benefit requirements.
Prepare a worksheet from medical records