Korea Teacher's Pension Plan Payout

In Korea, there are two basic teacher's pension plans. The first is the national pension plan which all hagwon teachers, most public school teachers, and national university teachers would contribute to. The second is the Korea Teacher's Pension Plan, which is what most university teachers in Korea are a part of, including myself for the past 7.5 years. I'll be talking about this second type of plan in the remainder of this post.

Since I'm leaving Korea in a year to return to Canada, I was wondering what my payout would be because it is a big part of what will fund my return to school to study finance.  The Korea Teachers Pension (KTPP) website is really confusing, such that is almost impossible to calculate your own refund.

I asked for some information in this Facebook group, Foreign Teacher's in Korean Universities and struck gold: a number to an English speaker at the pension office. The number is: 02-769-4408 and the guy answering the phone speaks strangely good English. He asked for a bit of basic information such as my Alien Registration number and name and then told me the news.  

As of now (7.5 years), my payout would be 28.5 million and after 8.5 years (next year), it will be 32.2 million, after tax.

A tip: although the exact time frame is uncertain (after 5 years, or at 6 years-perhaps phone the office), you get a significant bump in your payouts at that time so if you transfer jobs, it is in your best interests to transfer the plan to your new job instead of taking a lump-sum payout part way through.

Tip #2:  while it was possible to transfer your time on the national pension plan to the Korea teachers Pension Plan about 10 years ago, it is not possible now. But, of course check for yourself.