Turning to Arirang now, despite being one of the wealthiest countries in Asia,... Korea has the highest elderly poverty rate in the OECD. Making matters worse,... a new study shows most older people struggling to make ends meet also suffer from so-called multi-dimensional poverty. Park Ji-won sheds light on this issue.
[CG IN]
Nearly 70% of Korean seniors suffer from ‘multidimensional’ poverty

Nearly seven out of ten Korean senior citizens end up suffering from multiple layers of poverty.

According to a recent study of nearly 3-thousand senior citizens surveyed,...

67-point-3 percent of them as of 2013 were defined as living below the poverty line in more than two criteria,... such as income, housing and health.

In terms of income, a majority of seniors earned less than half of the nation's median income.

A similar percentage also suffered from at least two chronic diseases,... or depression,... or have difficulty with physical activities.
Many elderly also had a poor social participation rate,... based on their regular group activities.

However,... compared to figures in 2011,... the overall numbers have improved.

Research fellow Hwang Nam-hui, who led the study,... says the reasons behind the improvement are not yet clear,... and could be the topic of future studies.

[CG IN]
Study shows need for welfare policies unrelated to income

She emphasized that the goal of her study was to show that more policies should be devised for helping senior citizens from a social aspect.

[Interview]
Hwang Nam-hui / Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs
(Korean)-전화인터뷰
"Most senior welfare policies center on providing income,... such as subsidies or basic pension. However, this study shows that policy should be implemented to help senior citizens deal with depression and increase social participation."

[REPORTER]
Park Ji-won

The study was published in the latest edition of Pension Forum published by the National Pension Research Institute.

Park Ji-won, Arirang News.