2. The Result of the Research 1) Background Poverty of the elderly is a sensitive political issue in South Korea and it seems to be agreed that welfare policy should address this problem urgently. The average elderly poverty rate among OECD countries is 13.5% while Korea’s rate is 45.1%, 3.4 times higher. Korea’s suicide rate of the elderly is nearly four times the average for OECD countries, with poverty widely understood to be an underlying factors. An effective response to poverty among the elderly requires an accurate determination of which segments of the population are better and worse off. The higher poverty rate among the elderly does not necessarily imply that the same policies should be applied to all of Korea’s elderly. Indeed, …show more content…
This has resulted in severe distortions in support priorities since the actual economic resources of the elderly vary depending on the presence or absence of adult children within household. This suggest a need to account for the economic resources of adult children who are members of the household as a way of gauging the level of actual economic resources while still avoiding the potential pitfalls of the support obligor standards.A more effective policy approach for addressing poverty among the elderly prioritising those with the most urgent need based on accurate assessments of the economic resource of the entire household needs to be taken. 2) Poverty Level among the elderly in Korea Because the Korean pension system is still relatively young and underdeveloped, its elderly poverty rate is higher than in other OECD nations. In most OECD nations, poverty among the elderly dropped sharply as pension systems matured. The rate in Korea is currently much higher than the rates for other population groups. Korea’s elderly poverty rate stands at 45.1% compared to a 13.5%, average for the 30 countries of the OECD. For those countries, poverty among the elderly dropped sharply from the 1980s onward, with the rate for those aged 66-75 falling below that of children and young adults. Social issues such as the high suicide rate among the elderly have led to a widespread perception of the need for a community-level response to poverty among the elderly.
This article focuses on statistics and actions (or lack of) in policies related to poverty. The topics that is discussed included who is the most likely to live in poverty and how it is measured. Also discussed in this article are the public policy response and poverty reduction. The articles credibility is high due to the type source which is academic. However, the reliability of the context in the article is questionable because of the lack of a strongly written argument. The statements appear to lack explanation on how they got their evidence,
The North Korean single payer system works when the majority of citizens are healthy, and can pay enough to outweigh the cost of the ill. This however, changed in 1995 during the great famine. A period of severe flooding and droughts caused the agricultural system to buckle. Food production became very limited, and a great famine plagued the nation for several years. A joint report by the European Union, United Nations Children’s Fund, and World Food Program conducted a survey in 1998 and found that “15.6 percent of children in North Korea were acutely malnourished, and 62.3 percent were stunted, a sign of chronic malnutrition.” (Shin, S. S., & Choi, R. Y., 2013). An estimated 600,000 and 2,500,000 people died as a result of the famine in the 1990s. (Owen-Davies, J., 2001) During this time the healthcare system was in complete disarray. Numerous more citizens were ill and
All over the news and in different programs that are implemented are set in place are geared toward children in poverty. Poverty in children is a huge problem happening all over the country but what about the elderly. We get so focus on helping the children that the elderly can sometimes be looked over and forgotten about. In Texas, 17% of all elderly are living in poverty. Poverty in the elderly is an issue that continues to rise at a fast pace and this may be because of food insecurity that they may face (Communities Foundation of Texas, 2016). Most people feel like getting old is so far in the future for them, or just the idea of aging is too hard to think about but getting old for all of us is imminent. The elderly once took care of us, so it is
We also offer subsidies for those of low-income to help bridge the gap of whether to pay the rent or eat. According to Stats Canada, more than 12 per cent of all Ontario senior citizens fall below the Low Income Measure, which defines and determines poverty. That number hits 27 per cent when looking at seniors who are also single. This is particularly troubling given that seniors are expected to make up 23 per cent of the population by the year 2030. The stress on single person households is also a cause for concern in the report. The basic income gap for Ontarians in these homes falls 33 per cent under the 2014 poverty line of $19,774, while someone on the provincial disability support program falls 60 per cent below this
We can’t purport to have a national goal to “eliminate health disparities” and continue to accept the social inequities that come from such a major gap in wealth. If we hope to solve the pressing issues of eldercare, these inequities must be addressed head on now and in the future. Otherwise, those who are caregivers now may not have access to the care they will need in the future.
In just Sacramento alone, for one single senior, their income is only $11,400. They can’t get stuff needed with such little money, and can’t pay for medical bills either, because as you get older of course health deteriorates. Sacramento has about 520,000 Seniors and 28,000 of those Seniors are considered poor. Another crazy fact is most seniors in poverty are women, single women. Those Seniors living in poverty don’t have any control of the costs of food, housing costs or prescriptions that may be needed which makes it hard when there is only one source of income coming in. It is a strict budget. Elders don’t want to have to rely on their children because they don’t want to be a burden. Elders are 20% below the normal threshold, which $16,000 annually, and this is because of the high cost of living, i.e; health care and housing. A single adult with mortgage in San Jose, California is about $16,500, which is about $5,300 higher than the official poverty threshold. According to the KFF 28% of elder Hispanics, 22% of elder Black/ African Americans, 41% of elder Whites and the other 9% of elders lived in poverty in 2013, now, being 2016, that number has risen. In 2013, the KFF found that with increased age, came increased poverty. They also found that the poverty rate was higher for women than men at the age of 65 and that poverty was higher in Hispanics/ Latinos and Blacks/ African Americans rather than White
Research show that in 2013, over 9.5% of seniors over the age of sixty-five lived in poverty with the percentage increasing as an individual’s age increases (McNeal, 2016). These statistics does not account for the other issues which affects families and caretakers when addressing the well-being of their loved ones and the inadequate access to long term care.
Thus, a better healthcare policy for the older population may help to address their many health related problem and the financial burden. Implementing a populace health approach to health, which focuses on the interconnected conditions and aspects that influence the health of the older populations over their life course, recognize the systematic disparities in their forms of occurrence, and applies the knowledge to develop and implement policies to improve their health and to reduce health inequalities (Plouffe, 2003). With that, the Government can promote healthy aging that heightens the opportunities to improve and retain the seniors’ health, social wellbeing, independence and quality of
According to Novak “Issues in Aging,” The negative backlash that both minorities and women share is minimal to the hardship we see with widows. The woman who has lost her spouse by death and has not remarried suffers the most in her aging life, the risk of her being poverty stricken is at an all-time high. The cause of this, as mentioned before most women didn’t work so no retirement has been stored up, so when her husband is ill the benefits apply aide till he dies, once the husband’s funds are depleted widows have little to nothing to live off of. She must then look to her children to provide if the children are unable to provide widows may suffer poverty till
Households of different sizes will have different needs, which are not typically reflected in current poverty measures. Adjustment should be made on the age of household members. If one of the household members is retired, they’re currently not pulling in any income. Instead, they’re most likely having higher expenditures because they’re dipping into their savings. If household members are at the age in which they’re attending college and tuition is considered one of the bills of the household that must be taken into consideration as well. Another big question that must be taken into account is whether households of different sizes should receive differential treatment because they’re able to purchase goods in bulk at cheaper rates. We may want to use an equivalence scale to adjust for basic needs for different age groups and gender (Coudouel 1996). Equivalence scales is standard means of determining whether a household is poor by comparing per capita spending or income to per capita poverty line. An equivalence scale should not be used as a “pure” measure of determining poverty, but instead be used to test the degree of poverty in combination with alternative scales and
First and foremost, despite slight recent increases in the amount of income obtained by members of the older population, their economic status is still quite perilous (Federal Interagency Forum, 2012).1 Men in this category have a median income of $27,707, while women continue to lag behind with a median income of $15,362 (AOA & AOCL, 2012). A vast majority of these individuals cite Social Security as their primary source for this income, amounting to 86-percent of the total older population (AOA & AOCL,
The older adult population in the United States has steadily increased thanks to technology and medical advances. While this definitely is an undeniable achievement, it also creates some challenges that society was not as prevalent to face before. Now that people are living longer it’s also means that often times family members are becoming caregivers to their loved ones during their so called golden years. Not only may it be difficult to care for a loved one, but it also becomes even more burdensome when their loved has a disability. In fact “dementia is one of the major causes of disability and dependency among older people worldwide.” (2016). Fortunately there are adult day centers that serve people with dementia and provide services that can benefit them. However many times caregivers are forgotten about and aren’t provided services that can also benefit them as well. While it does take a bit of pressure off of the caregivers while their loved ones are at the day center, it does not eliminate all the other effects. Many people may not be aware that there are detrimental effects that a caregiver may experience as a result of caring for someone with dementia.
The elderly sources of income include 5 items .The largest part belongs to social security which is 37% .It shows that most of people use insurance and government`s helps .The second source is earning that contains 25% of the income. A common way to get money is having a job. Some guys invest their savings in different fields. These benefits accounts for their assets. The assets comprise 23% of sources. Retirees get their salary each month from insurance or wherever they worked. Pensions apply to13%of the whole .The last part of all is other which absorbs2% of
Modern governments promise old age security, which ensures that their citizens can fend for themselves during old age. The approaches, however, may vary from society to society. In some like The United Kingdom and Canada, government pensions are distributed to the elderly. In some others such as Singapore, the people are compelled to provide in advance for their old age dependency. Some societies have laws in place to enforce children to take care of elderly parents. For example, in Singapore, elderly parents may file in to the court if their children do not provide for them. However, there are various financial concerns about these methods. In the case of government pensions, the heavy spending of public fund on the old aged may take a toll on other areas of the nation’s development. Thus a method that works in a society may not work in another and sometimes, multiple approaches have to be taken.
Discussing the objectives of pension policy is important since these goals play a major role in determining the nature of old age income security, which in turn has implications for the elderly, and arguably, society as a whole. Hills (2015) focuses on the redistributive objectives of the welfare state and pensions. By collecting contributions from affluent groups in society, pension systems can aim to alleviate poverty by vertically redistributing income and wealth to the poorer pensioners (Hinrichs & Lynch, 2010; Barr & Diamond 2006).