Points Earned from Caring for Seniors: First Use Starts Tomorrow

[Anchor]

As South Korea enters a super-aged society, a new type of system designed to fill the gaps in senior care will take effect tomorrow. It is a form of "care savings" where individuals perform volunteer work to care for seniors while they are younger, accumulate points, and then use those points to receive care themselves in the future.

SBS reporter Park Ha-jeong introduces this initiative as part of our year-long series on the era of 10 million seniors.

[Reporter]

At a senior welfare center in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province,

[Those who are living without electric fans during the intense heat wave...]

Today's care activity involves visiting vulnerable seniors to check on their well-being and delivering donated electric fans.

It may look like simple volunteer work, but it is also what is known as "care savings" for the future.

[Kim Sun-ok / Care Volunteer: I can receive that (care) myself as well. So, I see it as a good thing in many ways.]

When volunteers perform various care activities—such as providing companionship, assisting with leisure activities, helping with household chores like cooking and cleaning, or home repairs—they earn one point per hour. When the volunteers themselves become seniors, they can use these points to receive care services.

[I missed you so much. Let's go inside. Here is the fan. Oh, I am so grateful, what should I do? Will you be able to use this without me assembling it for you?]

The program began in 2015, and until now, participants could only accumulate points. However, starting tomorrow, volunteers aged 65 or older who have collected at least 100 points will be able to use them.

This senior, who is 80 years old this year, has been accumulating points by helping other seniors go out and acting as a companion.

[Lee Jong-eop / Care Volunteer: Just like how you receive a blood transfusion (using a blood donation certificate) after donating blood, it would be great to receive care as well.]

He has accumulated 854 points so far.

Regardless of his long-term care insurance grade, he can receive care services for 3 hours a day, 5 days a week, for over a year without spending any additional money.

Currently, there are approximately 55,000 registered care volunteers nationwide.

There are 90 seniors who are eligible to use their points starting tomorrow.

However, as the use of points increases, there is a possibility that the supply of care may fall short of demand in some regions, such as South Jeolla Province, where there is a shortage of volunteers.

[Seok Jae-eun / Professor of Social Welfare at Hallym University: (Beyond just volunteering,) the gap in service infrastructure between regions is severe. It is also important to provide motivation by letting people realize that "there is something I can do as well."]

There are also suggestions that supplementary measures are needed, such as granting more than one point per hour for relatively demanding care activities to encourage volunteer participation.

(Video coverage: Kim Se-kyung | Video editing: Lee So-young | Graphics: Jang Chae-woo)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.