[Editorial] The Basic Pension Overhaul Abruptly Postponed… Is Reform Being Deferred out of Political Considerations? (2026.08.28.)

The Ministry of Health and Welfare had arranged an advance briefing on the 27th for a pension overhaul plan that would reduce the number of Basic Pension recipients in stages, only to cancel it an hour beforehand.

It said that “some elements of the overhaul plan have not been finally decided, so it has unavoidably been canceled, and no date has been set for a future announcement.”

Whether the public announcement to the nation set for the first of next month will go ahead has also become uncertain. With the Lee Jae-myung administration’s job approval rating falling in various recent opinion polls, the move is being read as an attempt to defer a pension reform that could erode support among older voters.

The pension overhaul plan that was to have been announced is said to have provided for shifting the eligibility criterion — currently people aged 65 and over in “the bottom 70% by income” — to a basis centered on the “standard median income,” narrowing the beneficiary population in stages.

The standard median income is the income of the household standing at the midpoint when all households in the country are lined up by income.

The core of the overhaul was to lower the Basic Pension eligibility threshold to 90% of the standard median income next year and, in stages, to 80% by 2030. This year’s Basic Pension eligibility threshold for a one-person household, reflecting income and assets, stands at about 96% of the standard median income.

The Ministry’s plan was to use the resources freed up by narrowing eligibility to pay low-income older people more generously, creating a “more for the lower, less for the upper” (下厚上薄) structure.

Under the plan, the benefit — 350,000 won this year — would rise next year to 380,000 won for those at or below 20% of median income and to 359,000 won for those above 20% and up to 40%, while being frozen at 350,000 won for those above 40% of median income.

The plan is also said to have included a measure to lower the reduction rate to 10% from next year for couples at or below 40% of median income, whereas at present each spouse’s award is cut by 20% when both draw the Basic Pension.

Work on the Basic Pension overhaul began in earnest in March this year, when President Lee posted on social media, “To reduce elderly poverty, the Basic Pension probably needs to be changed somewhat.

Leaving existing benefit levels as they are and applying ‘more for the lower, less for the upper’ only to future increases might be one way to do it.”

The Ministry then drew up the overhaul plan, incorporating expert views; precisely because it went so far as to give advance notice of the announcement before abruptly postponing it, the reasons are far from convincing.

That is why there is speculation that, with President Lee’s approval rating trending down, the government delayed the announcement mindful of a backlash from older people who could lose their eligibility.

Paying the Basic Pension to “the bottom 70% by income” dates from 2014, under the Park Geun-hye administration.

The beneficiary population, 4.1 million at the outset, has since grown to about 7.8 million as population aging has advanced rapidly.

The annual budget devoted to the Basic Pension has likewise swollen more than fourfold over the same period, from 5.2 trillion won to 23 trillion won.

Even as the tax burden on the public snowballs, the irrational structure goes uncorrected.

There is a contradiction: the benefit falls far short of providing real help with the livelihoods of older people in poverty, while even older people who can hardly be said to be in financial difficulty receive it.

Cover it up and fix nothing, and the sickness inside only festers. Against this backdrop, to weigh political advantage and disadvantage and defer Basic Pension reform is deeply irresponsible.

Donghaeng Media Sidae

https://n.news.naver.com/article/417/0001156749?sid=110