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Public To Get Notice Of Pension Payment Status

The Asahi Shimbun

August 11, 2004




The Social Insurance Agency will begin mailing out records from next fiscal year. 

Beginning next fiscal year, everyone covered by a publicly managed pension program will receive their payment records for the preceding year. 

Social Insurance Agency head Kiyoshi Murase made the promise in an interview with The Asahi Shimbun. 

In the past, the agency made payment records available to those who requested them, but this marks the first time those records will automatically be sent out by the government body. 

There are two reasons for the policy change: First, many have said they want to make sure they have kept up their pension premium payments, and second, the agency wants to raise public awareness about the need to pay into the system. By compiling data on individual payments, the agency hopes to gather detailed and accurate information on those covered by pension programs and thereby reduce the number of non-payers. 

Also, because the information will also be sent to non-payers, it is expected to encourage compliance. 

``It's important to have an accurate picture of individuals covered by pension programs (to prevent nonpayment),'' Murase said. 

From next year, those covered by kosei nenkin, the government-managed pension program for corporate employees, and kokumin nenkin, the national pension plan for self-employed individuals and students, will begin receiving the information by mail. 

Under the new system, a person who pulls out of the employee pension program, whether because of changing profession or job loss, will be reminded with a payment-status notification to join the national pension program if he or she has failed to do so. 

Also, companies will no longer be able to sidestep paying into pension programs. Though required to shoulder half the pension premiums of employees, some companies try to avoid doing so by keeping employees off the kosei nenkin plan. 

The pension system has also come under fire for withholding from citizens information about exactly how much they can expect to receive after retirement. 

Until last year, only those aged 58 or older could find out how much they could expect to receive by visiting their local social insurance office. 

The age limit was lowered to 55 in January this year amid increasing public distrust of the pension system. 

Still, accurate figures are not available to some if their employers belong to a special corporate pension plan. In this case, some of the funds are invested and the information is not provided by the Social Insurance Agency. 

From fiscal 2008, the agency plans to provide information to everyone covered by pension programs, based on the premiums paid so far, as to how much they can expect to receive. 

It is not clear, however, whether those who pay into the system will be able to find out how much they can expect to receive upon retirement if they continue to pay their premiums until age 60. 

Meanwhile, in Sweden, from October individuals can view over the Internet estimates of the amount they can expect to receive from the public pension program as well as from the corporate pension plan. The system is run by both the government and private-sector insurance businesses. 

The Swedish government already informs individuals by mail of their pension status.



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