(SBS Biz Live Debate. Pension Future Forum) [In-Depth Diagnosis] [In-Depth Diagnosis] Basic Pension's 'More for the Lower, Less for the Upper' Overhaul Ultimately Falls Through…30,000 More Won for the Bottom 30% by Income — Just a Show of Reform? (Press input: September 2, 2026, 5:32 p.m.)

■ Today's Economic Scene 'In-Depth Diagnosis' -

Yoon Seok-myung, Research Fellow Emeritus at the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs (Leader of the Pension Future Forum).

Jeong Yong-geon, Representative of the Social Solidarity Forum 

The number of people receiving the Basic Pension, an old-age welfare benefit, has already surpassed 8 million. This is because the older population is surging. Even people with quite high income levels receive it.

The budget required, including local government funds, comes to 27 trillion won. The Lee Jae-myung administration, having judged this unsustainable, announced that reform was coming — but looking at what was actually unveiled, it turned out to be an anticlimax.

Let's discuss the contents of the Basic Pension overhaul and its problems.

We have with us Yoon Seok-myung, Research Fellow Emeritus at the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs, and Jeong Yong-geon, Representative of the Social Solidarity Forum. 

Q. The Basic Pension overhaul plan has been announced. There was an attempt to change the payment criterion from the bottom 70% by income to the standard median income, but that was dropped entirely. The idea is to differentiate the payment amount by income tier — specifically, how is it changing? 

Q. One of the Basic Pension's biggest problems is that even older people with quite high incomes receive it. That's why there was an attempt to adjust the target group to below a certain level of the standard median income — why do you think the government failed to push this part through? 

Q. Since the relevant law will have to be amended in the National Assembly anyway, considering the positions of the ruling and opposition parties and the balance of power, could the issue of changing the criterion be pushed forward again during the National Assembly's deliberations? 

Q. For the 45–70% band by income, the amount received will be frozen at this year's level — compared with the tiers whose payments are increasing, there would be a relative sense of deprivation, wouldn't there? The resistance won't be trivial, will it? 

Q. For low-income couples who both receive the Basic Pension, or for the low-income tier among those receiving the special occupational pension schemes such as the Government Employees Pension, the benefit will increase considerably, won't it? 

Q. If the overhaul plan announced today (the 1st) goes ahead as is, next year's Basic Pension budget will increase by 2.6 trillion won. There have been many criticisms that the fiscal requirement for the Basic Pension is too large — to what level is it increasing? 

Q. Concerns have been raised that raising the Basic Pension could weaken the momentum for National Pension enrollment — what effect will this overhaul have on National Pension contributors? 

(For further details, please watch the video.

As of 6:49 p.m. on September 2, 2026

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