(Yonhap Infomax, October 14, 2026) National Pension Financial Projection Staff on Long-Term Secondment to Sejong, Home of the Welfare Ministry… Independence Under Scrutiny

Secondment continues even after pension reform…

Doubts over objective projections

Secondment headcount and period 'elastic'…

From the original one year to five

(Seoul = Yonhap Infomax) Reporter Noh Yo-bin = It has been confirmed that the National Pension Service's financial projection unit has been stationed in Sejong City for a long period to support a government ministry. Critics point out that if the projection function, for which objectivity is essential, is placed close to the government, its independence may be threatened.

According to data that Representative Jeon Jong-deok of the Progressive Party, a member of the National Assembly Health and Welfare Committee, obtained from the National Pension Service and released on the 14th, 19 staff members of the National Pension Research Institute's Financial Projection Analysis Office are currently working in Sejong.

A financial projection forecasts the National Pension Fund's long-term revenues and expenditures on the basis of macro variables such as population structure, the economic growth rate and the inflation rate. It is conducted every five years and serves as the key basis for diagnosing the fund's financial condition and designing pension reform plans.

At the end of July 2023, the National Pension Service launched a Pension Reform Intensive Support Unit and seconded the relevant staff to Sejong. The purpose was to let the Ministry of Health and Welfare swiftly support financial projection work in response to requests from the National Assembly and others during the pension reform (parametric reform) discussions.

However, it has emerged that the secondment of financial projection staff from the National Pension Research Institute, an affiliate of the National Pension Service, has been maintained even after the pension reform bill passed the National Assembly.

As the secondment period was extended, the number of seconded staff also grew.

The Financial Projection Analysis Office's secondment to Sejong started with 13 people, rose to 14 in 2024 and 16 in 2025, and has reached 19 this year — 46% more than at the start of the secondment.

Concerns are being raised that if a structure in which the organization responsible for financial projections closely supports the government's policymaking is maintained for a long time, trust in the objectivity of the projection results could weaken.

Financial projection is core work that underpins policy decisions balancing the insured's old-age income security against the fund's long-term fiscal stability. Because the government's pension reform plan and various alternatives are compared and decided on through social consensus, trust in the independence of the projection process is required.

The National Pension Service originally planned to run the Sejong secondment on a temporary basis for one year, but as pension reform discussions in the National Assembly dragged on, it extended it by one year to June 2025. It has now extended it further and plans to operate it until 2028.

In effect, a secondment initially planned for one year has stretched to five years in total. Such a long-term secondment may also conflict with the government's policy on relocating public institutions.

In 2025 the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport revised its 'Post-Relocation Management Plan for Relocated Public Institutions' so that organizations and staff are kept from moving out of their relocated sites 'unless there are unavoidable reasons.'

Representative Jeon Jong-deok pointed out, "The financial projection is the set of numbers that serves as the basis for setting the direction of pension reform," adding, "If the organization that produces those numbers supported the drafting of the government plan, it cannot escape suspicion that the numbers came out in favor of the government plan." Representative Jeon went on, "They did not even keep a record of the Welfare Ministry's requests — how can the public trust the government's financial projections?"

The National Pension Service said, "In line with the Land Ministry's guidelines, we reviewed the operation of the Pension Reform Intensive Support Unit, and after consultation with the local government and approval from the Land Ministry, it was decided to operate it until 2028 for the smooth progress of the Sixth Financial Projection and National Pension reform."

https://news.einfomax.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=4439198