Old-age Poverty in Korea and How Should the Government Reduce It

Abstract

This study aims to propose workable and effective models of old-age income protection. For this purpose, the authors looked into the poverty situations of the current elderly in Korea and their socioeconomic consequences, and examined how a selected number of OECD countries tackle problems concerning old-age poverty. The findings suggest first that poverty rate is significantly higher among one-person elderly households than among elderly-couple households. Second, broad though the Basic Old-age Pension may be in its coverage, its benefit level is considered far less than appropriate. On the other hand, both the Old-age Pension and the National Basic Social Security provide relatively generous benefits, but they cover only 31.1% and 9.4%, respectively, of the elderly population. Third, a number of OECD countries, including Canada, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Sweden, and the UK, are found to provide an amount equivalent to 20~30% of average worker’s income to their senior citizens in the forms of means-tested supplementary benefit, Basic Pension, Guaranteed Minimum Pension. The policy suggestions we make in this study boil down to two things: i) broaden the beneficiary base of the National Pension while strengthening public assistance programs as a supplemental income protection scheme, and; ii) establish outside the National Pension another income protection pillar with the primary objective of reducing poverty among the elderly. The first option, while likely to be more target-efficient, but may well be regarded as less fair, inter-generationally and intra-generationally, than expected of a public income protection scheme. The second can be highly effective, but more costly and less target-efficient.