Presidential candidate Ahn Cheol-soo on Sunday announced a package of campaign pledges for senior citizens centered on raising the basic pension and ensuring lifetime education for them ahead of Parents' Day which falls this week.
"Parents were unable to save up for their own retirement, because they were too busy supporting their own parents and helping to educate children," the nominee of the center-left People's Party said in a press release. "I'll help relieve their sense of anxiety through this policy."
Presidential candidate Ahn Cheol-soo (Yonhap)
Ahn said he will eliminate the poverty level among senior citizens by raising the basic pension for those in the lower 50 percent income bracket to 300,000 won ($264) and scrap a system that disadvantages fee-paying subscribers of the national pension service. Currently, citizens aged 65 or older in the lower 70 percent income bracket receive 200,000 won a month in basic pension.
He also offered to provide senior citizens with more than 3,000 "jeonse" rental houses every year during his five-year term in office and build 10,000 public facilities for the elderly.
Jeonse is a home rental system unique to South Korea, where tenants pay a large sum of money as a deposit instead of paying monthly fees. Landlords profit off of the large deposits before returning the entire initial amount when the rental contract expires.
Sim Sang-jeung, presidential candidate of the progressive Justice Party, in the meantime, released a pledge for a more advanced basic pension system.
She vowed to pay 300,000 won a month to all senior citizens aged 65 or older and scrap a system that disadvantages fee-paying subscribers of the national pension service, if elected. (Yonhap)
