My wife hasn't been enrolled as a dependent for a few years because her income was above the threshold, but she left her job in July 2023 (so her income for 2023 should be under the threshold), however I forgot to add her as a dependent. Because of this she has paid into national pension even when unemployed. I do not know the exact amount as I don't keep track of her finances.
HR at my company was shocked to learn of that she's been paying into pension, and suggested I retroactively enroll her as a dependent so that she doesn't have to pay pension or health insurance, but at the same time seemed reluctant to help me out with the process as they mentioned it could take multiple months and we have multiple hospital bills that would need to be repaid and refunded as well. (we are currently expecting, so hospital visits are almost weekly)
Obviously I will enroll her as a dependent from now on, but I have a few questions:
Is it worth it to try to retroactively enroll her to get the pension refund? Since I do not know how much she paid to pension, this could be a "negligible" amount from 100,000 to something considerable like 1,000,000…
If I don't do the retroactive enrollment, whatever she paid to pension she will get back at retirement, right? (i.e. her pension contribution does not go into the void)
Am I understanding correctly that after enrolling her as a dependent now, she will be paying zero to pension and health insurance and my salary deductions will not increase at all? (Online sources say that taxpayers cover the pension of Category III people, which sounds unreal as I suspect it disincentivize spouses from getting a job?)
Thank you for taking the time to read, and thank you for the help. My company's HR is kinda useless when it comes to explaining this.
by korewa_pen_desu