Lift the senior citizen age to 75 — gradually

It’s time to break down the long-standing stereotype about age.

Choi Jae-shikThe author is a former chairman of the Government Employees Pension Service. Lee Joong-geun, the new president of the Korea Senior Citizens Association, has sparked a public debate by proposing to raise the legal age of a senior citizen from the current 65 to 75 over the next 10 years. Lee Shim, a former president of the association, made a similar proposal to lift the age to 70. Why has the senior age remained unchanged despite the repeated demand from the very organization representing the elderly?

In Korea, the benchmark age for a senior citizen is generally 65. The Welfare of Senior Citizens Act establishes that those aged 65 and older are eligible for benefits, including using subways for free.

More than 40 years have passed since the law was enacted in 1981, but the benchmark age has remained unchanged. During the period, the average life expectancy has increased by 16 years — from 66.7 years in 1981 to 82.7 years in 2022.

The Basic Pension Act and the Long-Term Care Insurance Act are also applied to those aged 65 and older. The starting age for pension payments under the National Pension Act and the Public Officials Pension Act is also rising to 65.

In 1956, the United Nations (UN) designated a country as an “elderly country” if the people aged 65 or older make up more than 7 percent of the total population. At the time, the UN defined 65 as the start of old age. But the global aging phenomenon was not so serious at the time. In 2015, the UN came up with a new benchmark age of 80 and older to define an old person — based on the composition of the human body and life expectancy. That means even the UN considers people to be elderly when they reach 80.

As people say, “Age is just a number.” The concept of an old person is a relative term. In the period when a person’s life expectancy was 60, 65 was considered an old age. But today, when people can live until 100 years old, 65 is just a middle age. According to Statistics Korea’s data, a 60-year-old has a healthy life expectancy of 20 years. In other words, you can live until 80 and still be healthy.

The baby boomers retiring now are well educated and well off. It is time to stop talking about how society will save them and start to talk about how they can save the world. It’s not fair to say that seniors don’t want to be called “old people” yet want to receive benefits. If some people only see what they want to see, we can’t find a solution.

The number of the elderly over the age of 65 has exceeded 10 million. According to estimates from Statistics Korea, the proportion of the population aged 65 and older was 19.2 percent in 2024 — and the figure will skyrocket to 34.3 percent by 2040. Soon, one in three will be elderly in Korea.

The old-age dependency ratio — or the number of individuals aged 65 and over per 100 people of working age — was 27.4 percent in 2024. It is expected to reach 50 percent by 2036. At this rate, Korea will soon become an “elderly country,” which means there’s no hope for the country. We need to reform our social system in line with the changes.

If we continue to turn a blind eye to this crisis, the social costs will increase enormously and the generational gap will be amplified. Concerns are deepening that disrespect and abuse toward the elderly will deepen in the future. In the end, the answer is to rationalize the benchmark age for senior citizens. It will not only reduce the burden on society, but also help the elderly maintain their social status.

A true welfare society for the elderly is one that allows them to continue doing what they want to do, not one that gives them benefits early. The benchmark age for welfare benefits and the retirement age should be lifted. The retirement age system represents “employment discrimination” based on age.

Only a few developed countries have kept the retirement age system. The problem is the salary system that favors seniority — and employment elasticity. Those issues should be addressed along with the abolition or extension of the retirement age.

In fact, the problems of an aging society are caused by our failure to adapt to the changes in time. Our life expectancy is increasing rapidly, but individual awareness and social systems are slow to adapt to the speed, resulting in a kind of cultural lag.

It’s time to break down the long-standing stereotype about age. The government and the National Assembly must stop passing the buck and seriously engage in the discussion to address the proposal to raise the senior citizen age by the new leader of the Korea Senior Citizens Association.

Translation by the Korea JoongAng Daily staff.