Claim Taiwan Labor Insurance Pension Early or Late? At 60, 65 or 70, Age 85 Is the Break-Even Line

Data as of: Articles 58 and 58-2 of the Labor Insurance Act checked word by word on 2026-10-28 (Laws & Regulations Database); life expectancy from the Ministry of the Interior’s 2025 (ROC 114) abridged life table. The calculations ignore CPI adjustments and discounting. Check your own figures with the Bureau of Labor Insurance calculator.

This short got 380,000 plays on Facebook, the most in my Labor Insurance series. The video is only a minute long, so this post writes out the rules, the math and how to decide.

The conclusion in three sentences:

• Claiming early at 60 and on time at 65 break even at 85, which is exactly the life expectancy of a 60-year-old Taiwanese. Money-wise, they’re about the same.
• Delaying to 70 is the hardest to pay off. You need to live to 95 to catch up with someone who claimed at 65.
• What really matters isn’t the spreadsheet. It’s your health at the time, and whether you need the cash.

Where I stand: I don’t sell insurance anymore, and this post isn’t sponsored. My own approach is to treat Labor Insurance as the floor and decide when to claim based on my health at the time.

The rules: up to 5 years early or 5 years late, 4% per year

Article 58 of the Labor Insurance Act keeps raising the claiming age. From 2026, anyone born in ROC year 51 (1962) or later must be 65 to get the full pension.

Article 58-2 gives two options:

Two things many people don’t know:

1. Whatever age you claim, you must first leave your job and drop out of Labor Insurance. You can’t draw the old-age pension while still working and insured.
2. Once it’s approved, you can’t change it. Claim at 60 at 80%, and it’s 80% even if you live to 100.

The math: how much at 60, 65 and 70?

Using the maximum insured salary of NT$45,800 and 30 years of coverage (pension formula: average insured salary × years × 1.55%):

Early vs on time: break-even at 85

If you claim at 60, you collect 5 extra years first: 17,038 × 60 months = about NT$1.02 million.

If you claim at 65, you get NT$4,259 more each month. Catching up NT$1.02 million takes 240 months, or 20 years, to age 85.

On time vs late: break-even at 95

Claiming at 65, you’ve collected 21,297 × 60 = about NT$1.28 million by 70.

Claiming at 70 gets NT$4,259 more a month, so it takes 300 months, 25 years, to catch up — meaning you’d need to live to 95.

So how long does a 60-year-old Taiwanese live on average?

Ministry of the Interior 2025 abridged life table: a 60-year-old has 24.89 more years on average, roughly to age 85.

That’s exactly the early-vs-on-time break-even point.

So looking at the “average”:

• Early and on time come out about the same. Live longer than average and on time wins; shorter, and early wins.
• Delaying to 70 needs you to live 10 years beyond average. Unless your family is long-lived, you’re very healthy, and you don’t need money at all from 65 to 70, delaying isn’t as attractive as it looks.

More life expectancy data (the longer you live, the higher your expected age) is in my post How Much Can You Get from Labor Insurance and Labor Pension?.

What really matters: your health and your cash

A spreadsheet only tells you the “average,” and you’re not an average. I’d use these three questions:

1. Your health? If you already have a serious illness, or your family tends not to live long, claiming early makes sense.
2. Do you need money between 60 and 65? If you retire early with no other income for those 5 years, claiming early is a cash-flow question, not a “which pays more” question.
3. Do you have other retirement money? Labor Insurance pays for life, so it’s worth more the longer you live. If your labor pension or your own ETFs can cover the first few years, you can afford not to rush into an 80% pension.

My own approach: decide based on my health at the time. For the gap, I’m already dollar-cost averaging into ETFs myself.

FAQ

The short video

The break-even points of all three options in one minute:

Further reading

Lazy conclusion

懶大

金融科技新創 CEO | 獨立財務顧問

1. Rules: from 2026 the full pension starts at 65; with 15+ years you can claim up to 5 years early or late, 4% per year, and it can’t be changed after approval
2. Early vs on time: break-even at 85, exactly the life expectancy of a 60-year-old Taiwanese — about the same money
3. Delaying to 70: only pays off if you live to 95, 10 years beyond average
4. The real decision: your health, whether you need money from 60 to 65, and whether other retirement money can cover the first few years

Labor Insurance is the floor, not the whole house. When to claim is a later decision; what you can do now is build up your other retirement savings.

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Sources

• Labor Insurance Act Articles 58 and 58-2 (Laws & Regulations Database N0050001, checked 2026-10-28)
• Ministry of the Interior 2025 abridged life table: life expectancy at 60 is 24.89 years
• Math: 45,800 × 30 × 1.55% = 21,297; × 0.8 = 17,038; × 1.2 = 25,556. Break-even months = total collected first ÷ monthly difference (ignoring CPI adjustments and discounting)

This post explains the rules and runs example numbers. It is not advice on applying for benefits. Check your actual amount with the Bureau of Labor Insurance old-age pension calculator.