The Pension Future Forum's Position on the Recent Discussion of the Basic Pension Overhaul (2)
- #연금특위
(In recent times, discussion for adjusting the Basic Pension's eligible recipients and payment amounts has been actively underway, centered on the government and the ruling party.
The Pension Future Forum has long argued that eligible recipients should gradually be narrowed, while paying more to the vulnerable — that is the direction in which the Basic Pension system should be overhauled — a position it has held for a long time!
Recently, in connection with the Basic Pension overhaul, bylined columns by experts, or media interviews, have been increasing.
What must not be forgotten here is
that most of these so-called experts were the very people who, as the current Basic Pension system was being created and operated,
over that process, served as its biggest facilitators!
Yet now,
the ones voicing a different tune — these so-called many pension experts of Korea —
ought, starting with their own past conduct, to make a full confession!)
Even Receiving Both the National Pension and the Basic Pension…3.38 Million Older People Still Fall Short of the 'Minimum Cost of Living' [Shin Sung-sik's Let's Go 9988]
Discussion of Basic Pension reform has conveniently just begun, centered on the National Assembly's Special Committee on Pension Reform. When the Basic Pension was introduced in 2014, the payment criterion was set at '70% or below of older people.' The number of older people is growing by an annual average of 6.4% — and yet 70%? According to the welfare portal Bokjiro, the central government offers 365 welfare services, local governments 4,557, and the private sector 328.
Among these, no small number of services — such as elderly jobs programs — require Basic Pension recipient status as a condition. It is a strange application of a strange standard. By contrast, the livelihood benefit for basic living security recipients is clearly set at '32% or below of the standard median income.' Since the standard median income is the bedrock of welfare, aligning with it is the right approach.
Because the standard is set at 70% of older people, the number of recipients has roughly doubled in about ten years. Every year, all older people are lined up, and the point at which recognized income (income and assets) corresponds to the 70th percentile is taken as the eligibility threshold. This, too, keeps climbing steeply.
This year, the recognized-income standard for a one-person household is 2.47 million won. The standard median income is 2.56 million won. The two have become nearly identical. As recently as 2015, the amount corresponding to the 70th percentile of older people was 930,000 won, but it has since risen 166%. The standard median income has risen 64%.
