Pension System Dispute

[Anchor Lead]

Senior recipients of basic welfare checks have taken to the streets protesting the unreasonable pension system. The basic pension amount is to be raised to 300,000 won in April, but the elderly citizens receiving the Basic Livelihood Security allowance claim that the raise is not doing them any good.

[Pkg]

These senior citizens have taken to the streets, pulling carts loaded with recyclable paper. Some 100 elderly recipients of the Basic Livelihood Security payments waged strong protests against what they call an unreasonable pension system.

[Soundbite] Kim Seon-tae(Head of Senior Citizens Union) : "The government has given and then taken away the basic pension that's supposed to help senior citizens in need. Does that make this government fair and tolerant?"

Recipients of the Basic Livelihood Security program gets monthly welfare allowances. But the basic pension money is regarded as income, thus reducing the amount of welfare allowance. A case in point is this senior citizen whose wife has Grade 1 mental disability. Starting this year, she started getting 250,000 won in basic pension, but her total income hasn't been increased. That's because her basic pension of 250,000 won has been deducted from the livelihood allowance.

[Soundbite] Lee Chung-gu(Recipient of Basic Livelihood Security) : "I want to buy food. It's hard to live without eating properly."

The government claims that it will fix the pension system, but the Ministry of Welfare overseeing this matter is taking too long to put its promise into action.

[Soundbite] Oh Gun-ho(Co-operator, My Welfare State) : "The Ministry of Health and Welfare said it would fix the problem. But now it's blaming the Ministry of Economy and Finance for not allocating the budget for it."

Starting next month, the basic pension payment goes up to 300,000 won. But the poorest of the poor, the senior recipients of the Basic Livelihood Security program, do not stand to benefit at all from the increase.