▲ A citizen consults with an employee at the comprehensive counseling room of the National Pension Service Seoul Northern Regional Headquarters on the 26th.
The Solidarity for Guaranteeing Basic Pension for Impoverished Elderly, an alliance of senior and welfare organizations advocating for the basic pension rights of elderly people receiving livelihood security benefits, denounced today (28th) that "the Ministry of Health and Welfare is neglecting the give-and-take basic pension."
The alliance made the remark, stating, "The government's proposed reform plan completely lacks any measures to improve the give-and-take basic pension."
Currently, elderly individuals receiving basic livelihood security livelihood benefits also receive the basic pension because they fall within the "bottom 70 percent of income," which is the eligibility criteria for the basic pension.
However, because the basic pension is fully calculated into the recognized income for livelihood benefits, even if the basic pension enters their accounts on the 25th of every month, the exact same amount is deducted from their livelihood benefits on the 20th of the following month.
According to the group, the number of elderly people receiving this "passing-through" basic pension increased from 760,000 in 2024 to 870,000 last year.
The group projects that this figure will soon reach 1 million.
The organization pointed out, "Under this structure, no matter how much the basic pension rises, there is no change in the total income of recipient seniors," adding, "Because of this, an increasing number of elderly livelihood security recipients are not even applying for the basic pension in the first place."
They further stated, "The National Human Rights Commission recommended resolving this issue in 2023 from the perspective of guaranteeing the human rights of the elderly," and added, "Improvement measures have been omitted from this basic pension reform that provides more to lower-income groups, and neglecting this is a continuous infringement on the basic rights of the elderly by the state."
The Ministry of Health and Welfare abruptly canceled a preliminary briefing on the basic pension reform plans scheduled for the previous day about 70 minutes before it was set to begin.
The reason given for the cancellation was that some parts of the reform plans had not been finalized.
The government has been preparing a reform plan to change the basic pension beneficiary selection criteria from a "target recipient rate" method to an "income criteria" method, while providing more support to low-income seniors.
(Photo: Yonhap News)
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