[News Today] “EXTENDING RETIREMENT AGE TO 65”

[LEAD]
There's a growing push to extend retirement age. This aims to bridge income gaps created by delayed pension eligibility. The effectiveness of this strategy in an aging society is now under scrutiny.

[REPORT]
Lee Sang-yeong has worked at the Daegu Public Facilities Corporation for twenty years.

He was supposed to retire this year but now he won't have to for another year.

The city of Daegu decided to re-hire public employees with two or more children even after their retirement age.

Lee Sang-yeong / Due to Retire Next Year
I think it's a great opportunity. A man in his 60s is still a young man.

Jeong Ran-hong, also due to retire next year, is worried about making a living after her retirement until she becomes entitled to the national pension.

Jeong Ran-hong/ Due to Retire Next Year
I don't know how I'm going to make a living for 21 months between my retirement and when I start receiving national pension.

At present the statutory retirement age is sixty, leaving a gap of up to five years until one starts receiving the national annuity.

Korea's elderly poverty rate is 40.4%, nearly three times the average of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development member nations.
Since the nation is expected to become a super aged society next year, the pension issue is very likely to grow even more serious.

Meanwhile, related bills are being tabled at the National Assembly lately.

Democratic Party lawmaker Park Hong-bae proposed reducing the gap between the year one starts receiving the national pension and the year one retires by gradually extending the statutory retirement age to sixty-five.

People Power Party lawmaker Kim Wi-sang also motioned a bill that aims to extend the re-employment of national or public agency employees with multiple children for up to two years.

Kim Seong-hee/ Dir., L-ESG Assessment Research Institute
Korea is the only nation where the retirement age is set lower than the national pension entitlement age. Jobs for middle-aged and older workers are different from those for young workers.

The extension of retirement age has to do with not only jobs but also the national pension system reform, which is why different generations must work out this issue through dialogue.

Sohn Yeong-kwang/ Head, Young Right United
Wake up, Nat’l Assembly that forsakes the nation's future, passes the bomb and debts to the next generation, blinded by votes and political disputes.

With the government getting ready to announce a new national pension reform plan, social discourse on retirement age extension is likely to speed up.