Debate heats up over raising cut-off age of senior citizens

An elderly man looks at job postings at a recruitment fair for seniors held in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, June 21, 2022. Yonhap

By Lee Hyo-jin

A debate has erupted over raising the cut-off age of senior citizens after several local governments revealed plans to raise the eligibility age for free subway rides. The cutoff point for old age currently stands at 65 in Korea.

Discussions on redefining the start of old age are expected to gain traction as the government is reviewing extending the subscription period of the national pension and delaying the age of pension benefits.

The rationale behind such moves is to reduce the government's surging social welfare spending burden as Korea sees a steep increase in the elderly population. However, some critics point out that raising the official age of senior citizens may only worsen the country's elderly poverty rate, which already stands at the highest level among OECD member countries.

The official cutoff point for old age has remained at 65 since 1981 with the establishment of the Senior Citizen Welfare Act. But the proportion of elderly people in Korea's population has been rising steeply ― from 3.9 percent in 1981 to 17.5 percent in 2022 ― mounting fiscal pressure on the government's welfare budget for senior citizens.

Free subway rides are one of the major welfare benefits offered to seniors aged 65 and over by local governments, as well as subsidized medical costs and free tickets or discounts to national parks and museums.

Some metropolitan governments, including Seoul and Daegu, are seeking to raise the eligibility age of free subway rides to 70, in a bid to stem the snowballing deficit incurred by the welfare policy.

The Yoon Suk Yeol administration, which vowed to reform Korea's pension system, is actively discussing whether to delay the eligibility age of receiving retirement benefits.

Although detailed measures have yet to be announced, an advisory committee of experts under the National Assembly's pension reform committee recently proposed gradually increasing the entitlement age for benefits to 67 from the current 62.

Such moves by the central and local governments are aimed at easing the fiscal burden posed by the surging elderly population.

However, experts say authorities should take a prudent approach in redefining the start of old age. It is true that Koreans are now living longer than in the past and there is a growing perception that age is just a number. But this does not mean that the quality of life has been improving for senior citizens.

“People in their 60s nowadays are more healthy both physically and mentally, and more socially active than people in their 60s decades ago,” said Jeong Soon-dool, a professor of social welfare at Ewha Womans University. “In that sense, it is time for us to begin discussions about redefining from what age people should be considered old.”

But Jeong said raising the official age must be accompanied by measures to minimize the so-called “income crevasse” ― a gap between the age that people become pensioners and the actual age they retire. The official retirement age is currently 60, which creates a three-year gap between retirement and the entitlement age for pension benefits set at 63.

“If such issues are not addressed preemptively, raising the official start of old age could backfire,” she said. “Korea's relative poverty rate among people aged 65 is currently the highest among OECD member states.”

In the case of raising the eligibility age for free subway rides, the professor said age should not be the only factor to be considered.

“In many other countries, free public transit passes for the elderly are offered in a flexible manner depending on an individuals' income level or by setting specific times for seniors to travel for free, except during rush hours,” she said.