The welfare ministry on Tuesday proposed a system of fixed-term employee pension payouts to surviving spouses, in an attempt to rectify a gender disparity amid the increase in dual-income households.
Under the ministry plan — submitted to the Social Security Council, which advises the welfare minister — payments would be limited to five years for both men and women in the 20s to 50s without children.
Currently, bereaved wives who are age 30 or older when they lose their partners can receive lifelong benefits, while bereaved husbands age below 55 when they lose their partners cannot receive payments.