More than 1 million people have failed to pay the first installment of their National Pension Insurance premiums from October and November 2008, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said yesterday, adding that the final deadline for payment is Thursday next week.
The social insurance mechanism was launched on Oct. 1, 2008 and Taiwanese aged 25 to 65 with household registration in Taiwan are eligible for insurance during the periods they are not covered by the Labor Insurance Fund, farmer’s health insurance, government employee’s insurance or military personnel insurance.
The program offers three types of annuity payments — an old-age pension, a disability pension and a survivors’ pension — as well as maternity and funeral benefits.
About 4.22 million people have been insured by the program since its launch, Department of Social Insurance Director Shang Tung-fu (商東福) said.
Bills for premium payments are sent every two months and the first bill was sent in December 2008, the deadline for which was Jan. 31, 2009, he said.
However, as of Jan. 9, more than 1.02 million people who were insured in the first two months had still not paid their premiums, he said.
The final deadline for paying overdue payments is 10 years after the original deadline, which means the final deadline is the end of this month, he added.
People who fail to pay their overdue premiums by the deadline would not be another chance to pay them and the months that they did not pay would not count toward their total insurance period, Shang said.
Furthermore, those who fail to pay will not be able to choose the “Method A” calculation standard for receiving old-age benefits and would not be eligible for a disability-guaranteed basic pension of NT$4,872 per month, he said.
For example, a person who was 55 when they entered the program in 2008, but has payments that are more than 10 years overdue would only be able to choose the “Method B” calculation standard for old-age benefits when they are 65, which would be NT$2,677 less than what they would have received under Method A and would add up to a difference of about NT$610,000 after 19 years, the department said.
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