pension

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Government intends to force 600,000 citizens to pay arrears in pension insurance premiums

The government is considering compulsorily collecting national pension insurance premiums from 600,000 defaulters in phases from April 2006.

The compulsory collection of arrears began in FY 2002, and about 10,000 people in FY 2003 and 30,000 in FY 2004 were forced to pay, and the government expects 100,000 to pay in FY 2005.

The new compulsory collection plan was proposed on September 27 by a panel of experts commissioned by the Health, Labor, and Welfare Ministry and the Social Insurance Agency to discuss a new organization concerned with social insurances.

The plan calls for transferring the agency's operations to the private sector so that more of the agency personnel can be shifted to the compulsory collection of premiums.

The percentage of pension insurance premiums paid was 85.7 percent in FY 1992 but declined to 62.8 percent in FY 2002. The decline caused the coercive collection system to start in the following year.

The biggest reason for the failure to pay premiums, accounting for 64.5 percent of defaulters' responses, is that the premiums are "too expensive for them to pay."

However, the Liberal Democratic and Komei parties in June 2004 adversely revised the pension law. In April 2005, the monthly payment of premiums was increased to 13,500 yen, and the increase will likely create more defaulters.

The problem won't be fundamentally resolved as long as the government on the one hand adversely revises the law to increase premiums and on the other force more people to pay even with the threat of the seizure of property.

The compulsory collection of pension premiums reneges on the national pension law upholding "cooperation and solidarity among the people." -- Akahata, September 29, 2005