If one were to decide what the most important thing in his or her life is at the moment, hardly anyone would be able to disagree with: preparing for a better future, a chance to change the way of life. Everyone ages eventually into senescence. Those w...
If one were to decide what the most important thing in his or her life is at the moment, hardly anyone would be able to disagree with: preparing for a better future, a chance to change the way of life. Everyone ages eventually into senescence. Those who have entered their late stage of life used to be the main driver of our economy. But the regulations and policies that were in place in the past could hardly prepare them for the stable future. Consequently, except for the few beneficiaries of public pension, most of the population have not been able to financially prepare for old age.
In addition, while the average life expectancy has been gradually increasing, the birth rate has been falling, leading to an aging population. An "aging society" as defined by the classification criteria of the United Nations is that which more than 7 percent of the total population is over 65 years of age. Korea has already been listed as an "aging society" in 2000, with the senior population reaching 7.2 percent of the total population. Korea is expected to become an "aged society" by 2018, with the senile population surpassing 14.3 percent, and a "super-aged society" by 2026, with the senile population reaching 20.8 percent.
As the world's fastest aging society, the problems of aging population are expected to worsen in the future. It is thus essential that new approaches to providing social welfare for the elderly are devised and put in place, if the social issues of aging population are to be avoided. Otherwise, the people and the country will face even worse situations leading to serious social problems.
This study examines the current status and issues of Korea's senior welfare programs, focusing on the subjects of income security, medical security, and social welfare services, with the purpose of providing policy suggestions for senior welfare policies. In order to accomplish this purpose effectively, theoretical research based on literature review was used as a research method.
The important core concepts of the welfare policy of the elderly were the monographs related to the welfare of the elderly, the domestic dissertations of the previous researchers, the policy report, and the statistical data of the national statistical portal. In order to collect the latest information related to the elderly welfare, when we checked the data, we confirmed the scope of research by the previous researchers and selected the scope of this study.
The purpose of this study is to present the direction of policies that complement the present welfare policies of the elderly in Korea. The main content of this research paper is as follows. The first chapter presented the introduction to the issue of filing and research purposes and the scope and methodology of the problem.
In Chapter 2, the theoretical background of the study described the concepts of the aging society and the elderly welfare and the necessity for reform of the elderly welfare policy, and to learn about the trends in the welfare polices of the developed countries and the analysis framework for the research.
In Chapter 3, we have analyzed the issues of the elderly welfare budget, the current state of the elderly welfare policy, the income guarantee policy, the health care policy, and the social services policies that are currently being implemented by the government.
In addition, based on the current status and data identified, the Chapter 4 presented the development direction of the elderly welfare policy in a larger framework. The needs to improve the elderly welfare policy, the senior income security, health care and other social services are highlighted.
The Chapter 5 summarized and concluded the above-mentioned content. The implications of the study and the direction of future research were presented.
After examining the senior welfare policies implemented in Korea, what can be learned from this research is that the problem of aging society is not a personal matter but a social one. Therefore, the issue can only be solved with the help of the central government and local community. The implementation of laws and policies aimed at providing additional support for establishing a social security system is a prerequisite to solving the issue at hand.