A Very, Very Important 2010 Commissioned Report from the Ministry of Health and Welfare (Study on Eligibility Criteria for the Basic Old-Age Pension)

(We hereby put this question publicly!)

In 2010,

the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs (KIHASA) —

under Research Fellow Yoon Seok-myung's

research responsibility —

carried out a study,

the "Study on Eligibility Criteria for the Basic Old-Age Pension," which,

in the debate over the Basic Pension,

was a very important report!

This was because, at the 2012 hearing for 'Restructuring the Basic Old-Age Pension' held by the National Assembly,

the content of this report

was the main topic discussed.

 

The lawmaker who, during the 2007 Roh Moo-hyun administration,

played the biggest role in the 'amendment of the National Pension Act' and

the passage of the 'Basic Old-Age Pension Act,'

as a ruling-party member,

wasnone other than

Kang Ki-jung, a member of the National Assembly (now Mayor of Gwangju).

At the 2012

"National Assembly Restructuring of the Basic Old-Age Pension" hearing —

which was quite intense —

in his closing remarks

(even though he was an opposition lawmaker at that point),

he held this commissioned report in his hand and,

"Just as you have done until now,

please keep researching diligently going forward too!" —

closed the hearing with these kind words.

Although it was a hearing conducted

amid considerable tension and controversy,

unlike today,

there was even a moment of warm encouragement!

Yet a report this historically important

from the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs (KIHASA)

has disappeared from its list of commissioned reports

— vanished!

Why?

How could that be!

It doesn't even turn up

in the government's own report search!

Why!

Why has this report

become a 'ghost report'!

This report

contains content that was extremely bold for the level of debate at the time.

That is because its core content was the proposal to select recipients of the Basic Old-Age Pension

using either 1. '50% of the average income of National Pension insured persons (the A value),'

or 2. '150% of the minimum cost of living,' linking it to that standard —

the proposal to select recipients this way was the core point!

(All of the policy alternatives proposed

were, in the long run,

approaches that would automatically and drastically shrink the pool of Basic Old-Age Pension recipients over time!)

This is also strikingly similar to the direction of

the current government and ruling party's Basic Pension overhaul discussions!

Yet a report this important —

and yet, why!

right now

has become a 'ghost report' —

the Pension Future Forum

hereby raises this question publicly!

 

(So that this situation

can easily be verified,

we have captured

the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs's list of

commissioned reports related to the Basic Old-Age Pension

and attached it as a screenshot!)