(TV Chosun — Pension Future Forum Coverage) The Bottom 45% Will Receive More… Next Year's Basic Pension Budget Up 11% (September 1, 2026)

[Anchor]
The Basic Pension overhaul plan has also been finalized. It keeps the number of eligible recipients unchanged while paying more to lower-income older people — a decision that will inevitably increase the fiscal burden.

Reporter Lee Sang-bae reports.

[Report]
Next year's Basic Pension budget will be 25.7 trillion won, up 2.6 trillion won, or 11%, from last year.

The biggest change is that, instead of a flat, uniform payment, the amount will now differ according to income.

Recipients are divided into three income bands.

Those in the bottom 0–30% income band will receive 380,000 won a month, up 30,000 won; those in the 30–45% band will receive 359,000 won, reflecting price indexation; and the remaining 45–70% band will continue to receive the same 350,000 won as now.

In the meantime, citing the fiscal burden, the government had been considering a "more for the lower, less for the upper"-style overhaul that would, by 2030, narrow recipients to those at or below 80% of the standard median income while raising the benefit amount.

But the overhaul plan that was actually unveiled did not reduce the number of recipients, and instead increased the payment amount for lower-income recipients.

The interpretation is that this decision was made out of concern for the political burden that could arise from a reduced number of recipients if the "more for the lower, less for the upper"-style change had been adopted.

Kim Dae-young / Chair, Pension Future Forum (Future Generations Network)
"Every decision to spend more survived; only the reform that would have corrected who receives it was erased."

For the couples' reduction, the reduction rate for the lower band will be cut from the current 20% to 10%.

Next year, couple households in the bottom 0–30% income band will see their payment rise from 560,000 won to 684,000 won a month, and those in the 30–45% band will rise to 646,000 won.

Next year's welfare budget, including the allocation for the Future Response Fund, rose 10.9% from last year to 152 trillion won.

This has been Lee Sang-bae, TV Chosun.

https://n.news.naver.com/article/448/0000636904?sid=102