1.3 million mistakenly receive lower pension benefits

March 3, 2018

Tokyo- About 1.3 million people in Japan ended up receiving lower amounts of public pension benefits than supposed in February due to mistakes in their filings for income tax breaks, health ministry officials said Saturday.

The mistakes were caused by substantial changes in application forms made for fiscal 2017 in line with tax reforms and the introduction of the My Number identification system for social security services and taxation, the officials said.

There were also data input mistakes by companies that do pension-related work on behalf of the Japan Pension Service, the officials said.

Pensioners who receive certain amounts of benefits and have to pay income tax are required to make filings every year if they want to be eligible for tax deductions.

The ministry is investigating the affected amount of pension benefit payments, the officials said. Jiji Press