Nuclear families split into single, double households

By Kim Tong-hyung

Generation after generation of Korean children have been read the bedtime story ``Heungbu,’’ about a poor but kind-hearted farmer whose fortunes reverse after saving a swallow from a snake. The bird in return brings him magical seeds that grow into gold-filled pumpkins.

In the tale, a cross between ``Jack and the Beanstalk’’ and ``There Was an Old Lady Who Lived in a Shoe,’’ Heungbu is described as having many children who he struggles to raise and feed.

Unable to afford clothes for each of them, Heungbu cuts several holes in a length of cloth to have his children move like a carton of eggs. Imagine the drama when one of them has to use the bathroom.

While it could be said that Heungbu and his children embody what had been the prototypical image of a poverty-stricken family up until several decades ago, the 21st century has been painting a severely contrasting picture.

A recent report by the Korea Development Institution (KDI), a state-run think tank, found that more than half of the country’s households living under the poverty line were those who live alone or couples living separately from their children.

Apparently, this has much to do with the harsh realities facing old people as well as the country’s lame excuse for a social safety net. The study showed that a safe majority of these poor, ``micro’’ families consists of old people.

``There is increased financial vulnerability among old people living alone or old couples living apart from their children. There is a need to reshape the country’s welfare system, which is optimized for three- or four-member families, and adjust to changes in family structure that has just one or two members,’’ said KDI economist Kim Yeong-cheol.

``Many old people living alone or just with their spouses are finding it hard to find a job and are often not receiving financial help from their children.’’

Kim also claimed that Korea must consider dramatic changes in social policy and values to bump up its skidding birth rate.

``While it’s natural that people are waiting longer before getting married as women are better educated and more economically active than before, the real problem is that Korea remains a country where marriage remains as the only acceptable form of relationship between men and women. As a result, lower marriage rates have resulted in lower birth rates,’’ Kim said.

``Countries like Sweden, Denmark and Britain, which have actively responded to changes in family structures and embraced the concept of cohabitation, have managed to stabilize the new form of families and maintain a higher birth rate than ours.’’

While longer life expectancies, a result of medical advances and a better understanding of health and diet, are a cause for celebration, it also poses a serious headache for policymakers, who are concerned over how the dwindling workforce will manage to support society’s increasingly top-heavy structure.

Korea as a nation has been struggling mightily to prevent people from an acute squeeze in living standards after retirement, which is all the more worrisome as a strikingly low birth rate suggests the country is ageing more rapidly than any other rich economies.

Korea tops Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) nations in poverty among senior citizens, with 45.1 percent in 2010, more than triple the OECD average of 13.3 percent and roughly double the 20-something rates in Japan and the United States.

The suicide rate among Koreans aged between 65 and 74 in 2010 was 81.8 per 100,000, considerably higher than the 17.9 of Japan and 14.1 of the United States. The suicide rate among Koreans over 75 was at a staggering 160 per 100,000.

Of households living on less than 50 percent of the median income in 2010, nearly 55 percent of them consisted of one- or two-member households, a visible increase from 46.9 percent in 2006. Koreans over 60 accounted for 72 percent of poor people living alone and nearly 70 percent of poor couples.

A survey by the National Pension Service last year showed about 70 percent of workers over 50 weren’t managing to save for retirement at all.

Economic activity among people aged between 55 and 64 was measured at 63.7 percent last year, according to government data, representing the highest level since the economic downturn. This shows that older workers are desperately clinging to desks and doorways as they don’t have enough money saved up for retirement.

Nearly 30 percent of Koreans over 65 were recorded as economically active in 2010, meaning they either had jobs or were looking for one, trailing only Iceland’s 36.2 percent among OECD nations. Less than one-third of Koreans over 65 receive state pensions.