Earning 4.68 Million Won a Month and Still Drawing the Basic Pension… Last-Minute Wrangling over the “More for the Lower, Less for the Upper” Overhaul (2026.08.30.)
[The current method for calculating Basic Pension recognized income (assessed income plus the income-converted value of assets),
in order to force a fit with the Basic Pension Act’s requirement
that 70% of all older people be beneficiaries,
applies an income eligibility standard
that is far too generous.
As the article below notes,
in the case of regular earned income,
1.16 million won is first deducted (disregarded), and then
a further 30% of the remainder is deducted.
And that is not the end of it!
From financial assets, 20 million won is deducted,
and there is also a deduction for the home a person owns,
varying by place of residence.
For a home in a large city,
135 million won is excluded
from the calculation of recognized income.
On the basis of recognized income computed
in this way —
that is, for a one-person household —
eligibility for the Basic Pension is granted
all the way up to recognized income of 2.47 million won a month.
Because fixed amounts are deducted from earned income, financial assets, and the home a person owns,
the result is an illusion of low income, under which even older people whose actual income is high
still receive the Basic Pension.
Can this
be regarded as the normal operation
of a public program?
Introduced through the political establishment’s politics of sheer bullheadedness in 2007 (the decision to fix coverage at 70%), and
in 2014
with Jin Young, then Minister of Health and Welfare,
as a mark of his opposition,
going so far as to resign of his own accord —
such is the reality of the Basic Pension.
If this is the situation,
then rather than doing nothing but vote calculations,
presenting proper data
to the public
and asking for their understanding and cooperation —
that is the posture the government
and the ruling party should adopt,
and the opposition party, too, should cooperate
across party lines!]
The standard median income is an indicator that the government (the Central Living Security Committee, 중앙생활보장위원회) deliberates on and publishes, based on the income level lying exactly in the middle when all households in the country are lined up in order of income.
The problem is that the method for calculating recognized income diverges considerably from income as households actually experience it. For regular earned income from work, a two-stage deduction applies: a basic 1.16 million won is deducted first, and then a further 30% of the remainder is subtracted.
As a result, an older person in a single household with no real estate or other property can draw the Basic Pension even while earning about 4.68 million won a month (more than 56 million won a year) from earned income alone.
A dual-earner couple household likewise falls within the eligibility threshold even at a combined 8 million won a month (an annual income approaching 100 million won).
