A Worker Died in Korea: What the Family Receives and How to Claim It (2026)

What changes, depending on where the family lives, is the form the money takes and the paperwork needed to prove who you are.

In short

What to do first

Six steps, in order. Start with the first one today.

1. Get the death certificate and the cause of death in writing. If there was an autopsy or a police report, get those too. Whether the death was work-related is the one thing the Service has to decide, and it decides it on documents.
2. Photograph the workplace and keep every message. Texts about shifts, overtime, or the conditions on the day are evidence. So are photographs of the site. Ask the worker's colleagues before they leave Korea.
3. Gather proof of the family relationship. Birth certificate, marriage certificate, family register — then have them authenticated by apostille or the Korean embassy, whichever applies on the date you file. See the dates below.
4. Gather proof of shared livelihood. Remittance records, bank transfers, money transfer app history. This is what decides who ranks first.
5. Call 1588-0075 — the Korea Workers' Compensation and Welfare Service — or have someone in Korea call. Ask which branch handles the workplace's district.
6. Decide whether to appoint a representative. If nobody in the family is in Korea, this is usually the step that makes the rest possible.

One warning before anything else. Do not sign a private settlement the employer offers before you know what the insurance pays. Settling early, for less than the statutory benefit, is a common and expensive mistake.

What the family receives

There are two separate payments, and they are claimed together.

The funeral cost is capped at both ends. For 2026 the maximum is ₩19,279,760 and the minimum is ₩13,943,000. If 120 days of average wage lands outside that band, the cap or the floor is paid instead. These figures are reissued every year, so check the current ones if you are reading this after December 2026.

"Average wage" is not the number on the contract. It is the daily average of everything the worker was actually paid in the three months before death — overtime, night shift premiums and regular allowances included. Workers on long hours often have an average wage well above their base pay, and the entire benefit is calculated from it. This is the single number worth checking carefully.

The two payments are also independent. A family that never held a funeral in Korea can still claim the survivor's benefit, and a person who paid for a funeral without being an eligible survivor can still claim the funeral cost.

Why families abroad receive one payment, not a pension

Korean law offers survivors a choice between a monthly pension and a one-time lump sum. That choice is not open to everyone.

Article 63(1) of the Industrial Accident Compensation Insurance Act defines who qualifies for the pension, and it excludes, in its own words, survivors who were not Korean nationals and were living abroad at the time of the worker's death.

So for most families of foreign workers — parents in Vietnam, a spouse and children in Thailand — the pension is not on the table. The claim is the lump sum.

This is worth being clear about, because families are sometimes told they have "lost" the pension or been given a lesser benefit. That is not what happened. Under Article 62(2), when there is no one eligible for the pension, the lump sum is the benefit: 1,300 days of average wage, paid once, in full.

Who can claim, and in what order

Article 65 sets a strict order of priority. Only the highest rank that exists receives the money.

Two rules sit on top of this order.

• If two or more people share the same rank, the money is divided equally between them.
• If the worker left a will naming who should receive the benefit, the will overrides the order entirely (Art. 65(4)).

"Sharing a livelihood" is the phrase that decides most cases, and it does not require living in the same house. A worker in Korea sending money home to parents in Vietnam is normally treated as sharing a livelihood with them. Remittance records are the usual proof — bank transfer histories, money transfer receipts, remittance app records. Keep them.

Five years, and why families still miss it

The survivor's benefit and the funeral cost both expire five years after the death (Art. 112). That is longer than the three-year limit on most other industrial accident benefits, and filing the claim stops the clock (Art. 113).

Five years is a long time. Families still lose this money, and the reason is almost never that they waited on purpose. It is that nobody told them the benefit existed. The employer said nothing. The coworkers went home. By the time a relative found out, the company had closed and the family assumed there was nothing left to claim.

There is. A closed company does not end the claim — the benefit is paid by the Korea Workers' Compensation and Welfare Service, not by the employer. Even an employer who never enrolled the worker in the insurance does not end it. The Service pays the family first and recovers the money from the employer afterwards, under Article 26(1) of the Insurance Premium Collection Act, which covers exactly this: an accident during a period when the employer neglected to register the insurance, or neglected to pay the premiums.

Documents from home, and a date that is about to change

The Service needs proof of the family relationship — birth certificate, marriage certificate, family register, whatever your country issues. A document issued abroad has to be authenticated before Korea will accept it.

There are two routes. Apostille is one stamp from a designated authority in your own country. Consular legalisation goes through the Korean embassy and takes longer.

Vietnam and Thailand have both joined the Apostille Convention, but they take effect on different dates.

Three countries objected to Vietnam's accession — Czechia, Austria and Germany. Korea did not object, so the date above holds for documents sent to Korea.

One practical note. In the weeks right after a change like this, the officer at the counter may not know it has taken effect. If you are told an apostille is not accepted from your country, ask them to check the date, and bring it in writing.

The family does not have to come to Korea

A family living abroad can appoint someone in Korea to file and follow up on their behalf.

Certified Public Labor Attorneys (공인노무사) and lawyers are authorised to do this. The Certified Public Labor Attorney Act, Article 2(1)(6), covers filing, reporting, claiming and pursuing remedies under social insurance law on someone else's behalf — and industrial accident insurance is social insurance.

This matters more than it sounds. The alternative is a grieving family running a Korean administrative process by email, in a language they do not read, from another country. A representative in Korea can receive the correspondence, respond to requests for additional documents, and go to the office in person.

Ask about fees at the start. Some cases are handled on a contingency basis and some are not, and there are free consultation channels below.

Talk to someone who reads Korean

The hardest part of this is not the law. It is that every letter, every form and every phone call is in Korean, and the family is usually somewhere else.

Write to Kori Care. Tell us what happened, in your own language. We will work out which office handles it, what the family needs to prepare, and what any document you have been sent actually says. If something needs to be written in Korean, we will help you write it.

Send us a message

We are not a law firm and we do not charge. We are people who know how these offices work and can read the paperwork.

If you would rather go direct

These are domestic numbers. From outside Korea, 132 can be reached on +82-54-132.

One thing to know before you assume help is free. Korea's state-appointed labor attorney programme covers Labor Relations Commission cases and wage substitute payments. It does not cover industrial accident claims. For a death claim you will either file yourself or engage a labor attorney privately.

If the death followed an injury rather than being immediate, our guide on industrial accident compensation covers the treatment and disability side of the same system.

Questions families ask

Did the worker need a valid visa for the family to claim?

No. Industrial accident insurance follows the work, not the visa. A worker without a visa, a worker whose visa had expired, a worker on someone else's E-9 permit — the family's entitlement is identical. The Service's job is to decide whether the death was work-related, not to audit immigration status. This misunderstanding stops more families from filing than any other.

The company was not paying insurance for him. Does the family still get anything?

Yes. The benefit is paid by the fund, not by the employer. An employer who failed to enrol the worker does not cancel the family's entitlement — the Service pays the family and then recovers the money from the employer separately.

The company has closed. Is it too late?

No. A closed company does not end the claim. What you need is proof that the work happened and that the death was work-related — not a company that still exists to agree with you.

Can the money be sent to our account at home?

Payment to an overseas account is generally possible, but the details — which banks, what SWIFT information is required, what fees apply — change over time. Ask the Service directly on 1588-0075 rather than relying on second-hand information, including older articles online.

He died at home, not at the workplace. Is that still covered?

It can be. Work-relatedness is not limited to accidents at the site. Deaths from overwork, from an occupational illness that developed over years, or from a condition triggered by working conditions can qualify. These cases turn on medical and work-hour evidence, and they are where a labor attorney makes the most difference.

How long does it take?

There is no single answer, and anyone who gives you a firm number is guessing. A straightforward accident with clear documents moves faster than a case where work-relatedness has to be established. What you can control is the completeness of the file you submit at the start.

Five years have almost passed. Is there any point?

File now. Filing interrupts the limitation period (Art. 113). An incomplete claim filed before the deadline is better than a complete one filed after it.

Before you close this page

If you have read this far, someone in your family worked in Korea and did not come home. Nothing on this page changes that.

What it can change is whether the family receives what the law already set aside for them. That money is not charity and not a settlement offer from the company. It was calculated years ago, written into the statute, and it is sitting with a government body whose job is to pay it out.

Three things decide whether it reaches you: filing within five years, proving the death was work-related, and proving who the family is. Everything else is paperwork that a representative can carry.

If you do not know where to start, start with step one at the top of this page — the death certificate and the cause of death in writing. Then call 1588-0075, or ask someone in Korea to call.

Kori Care publishes free guides for foreign residents in Korea in English, ไทย and Tiếng Việt — wages, visas, medical care, and the parts of Korean law that people usually find out about too late. If you are not sure which step applies to your situation, send us a message and we will point you to the right office. We do not charge, and we do not represent anyone's employer.

This guide explains Korean law in general terms. It is not legal advice for your specific case, and nothing on this page is a guarantee of any outcome.