Korea became a super-aged society in November 2025. Preparing for later life is no longer simply an individual responsibility: it has become a challenge for society as a whole. Preparation for old age, consisting as it does of planning in various key aspects of life―income, health, and leisure activities, in particular―enables individuals to preserve their autonomy as they age, while at the social level its aim is to help prevent poverty, ill health, and loneliness. It was with these ideas in mind that the government implemented the Act on Supporting Preparation for Later Life in 2015, establishing a legal framework for encouraging and supporting citizens. A support system has subsequently been developed, with the National Pension Service taking the lead, through which services are offered for comprehensive preparation across four key areas: financial security, health, leisure activities, and interpersonal relationships. Pursuant to the Act and the associated masterplans, the government also regularly conducts the Survey on the Status of Preparation for Old Age, with a view to using the findings to assess levels of preparedness among the population and improve related public policies and Basic Plans. The theme of this September issue of Health and Welfare Forum is “The Current State of and Challenges in the Support System for Preparation for Old Age in a Super-Aged Society.” The first article, “The Need for and Current State of the Support System for Preparation for Old Age,” considers the case for more individualized forms of assistance, pointing to the need to further customize services by harnessing digital technology and establish a governance structure that links the National Pension Service’s standard-setting and platform functions with local resources and capacities. Titled “Cases and Challenges in the Operation of Preparation-for-Old-Age Services,” the second article examines the framework through which the National Pension Service and local governments currently provide such services and, on that basis, suggests possible directions for their further development. The two thematic articles that follow draw on the Survey on the Status of Preparation for Old Age. The third article examines levels of preparedness for old age across the four domains and the disparities across groups of different socio-demographic characteristics, with its findings pointing to the need for assessment and counseling tailored to the circumstances of vulnerable groups. The fourth article addresses the four domains altogether and, based on the resulting patterns of preparedness, clusters individuals into four groups, focusing on the need to provide services tailored to groups with different needs. We hope that the discussions presented in this month’s issue will provide readers with a useful foundation both for understanding the support system for later-life preparation as a whole and for considering how effective policies and services can be designed and implemented.

Korea’s Old-Age Preparation Support System emerged in response to Korea’s particular social circumstances. Preparation for later life is a process through which individuals, by planning ahead for their income, health, interpersonal relationships, and the meaning of life, seek to maintain their freedom and autonomy into old age. At the social level, it forms part of an effort to reduce in advance the risks of poverty, ill health, loneliness, and social disengagement. Equipped though it is with a legal foundation and with a delivery mechanism through the National Pension Service, this system has yet to develop sufficiently, constrained by its top-down approach, low public awareness, lack of a clear policy identity, an unclear division of responsibilities between central and local governments, and limited platform functions and service content. Policymakers will need to consider harnessing digital technology to provide more customized support, while also establishing a governance mechanism that connects the National Pension Service’s standards and platform functions with resources available at the local level and adopting a perspective that views old-age preparation support as part of a preventive, social-investment strategy that captures even the changes in individuals’ lives that numerical indicators may fail to capture. Successful implementation of the Old-Age Preparation Support System could represent a significant step toward shifting Korea’s welfare state from reactive intervention to a preventive, capacity-building paradigm.

The government enacted the Act on Support for Preparation for Later Life in 2015 and designated the National Pension Service (NPS) as the Central Support Center for Preparation for Old Age. In collaboration with local governments, the NPS has provided support in four domains of later-life preparedness: financial security, health, leisure activities, and interpersonal relationships. The NPS has developed a standardized four-phase service delivery process consisting of assessment, counseling, education, and follow-up support, which is implemented through forty branch offices nationwide. Municipalities, for their part, provide various services tailored to local conditions. The NPS and local authorities coordinate their efforts through mechanisms such as local old-age preparation councils and information-sharing channels. Nevertheless, structural limitations remain, including insufficient public awareness of the services provided and unclear divisions of responsibility. Addressing these challenges requires stronger efforts to raise public awareness. At the same time, each actor should provide services that reflect its respective areas of expertise while ensuring that counseling and educational services are delivered in a complementary manner.

In the 2024 Survey of Preparation for Later Life, the overall score for preparedness for later life was 69.9 points on a 100-point scale. By dimension, ‘health’ had the highest score, at 74.5 points, followed by ‘financial security’ at 67.6 points, ‘interpersonal relationships’ at 64.9 points, and ‘leisure activities’ at 60.3 points. The overall score increased by 2.3 points over the previous five years. The largest increase was observed in the financial security dimension, which rose by 7.5 points, while the interpersonal relationships dimension decreased by 2.6 points. By sociodemographic group, people in their 60s, individuals without a spouse, one-person households, residents of agricultural and fishing areas, and individuals with lower levels of education reported lower levels of preparedness for later life, though the gap between their scores and the score for the overall population was found to have narrowed somewhat over the years. It should be noted, however, that the scores for one-person households in the dimensions of financial security and interpersonal relationships and for residents of agricultural and fishing areas in the dimensions of leisure activities and financial security remained substantially below the corresponding scores for the overall population. These findings suggest that sociodemographic factors should be taken into account when providing support, so that vulnerable groups can receive assessment and counseling tailored to their circumstances. It is also important to raise public awareness of services provided and increase access to those services.

Korea has now entered the stage of a super-aged society, with people aged 65 and over accounting for more than 20 percent of the population in 2025. Preparing for later life is no longer solely an individual responsibility; it is also a societal undertaking that requires active government involvement. Ensuring a secure and stable later life requires early, systematic, and planned preparation. Drawing on the 2024 Survey of the Preparedness for Later Life, this article examines four dimensions of old-age preparedness―financial security, health, leisure activities, and interpersonal relationships―and classifies respondents into four groups based on their preparedness profiles. The analysis explores the sociodemographic characteristics of these groups, their responses to survey items related to the four dimensions of preparedness, their experiences with preparation support services, and their self-assessed levels of preparedness. The findings suggest the need for services tailored to the characteristics of different groups, providing targeted support in areas where individuals are less prepared while helping them maintain strengths in areas where they are already well prepared.

This article proposes reforms to the Basic Pension and its coordination with other income support programs as strategies for reducing old-age poverty. To address poverty among older adults, the first tier of safety-net protection should target individuals whose incomes fall below 50 percent of the standard median income threshold or below 30 percent of median income. For this group, closer integration between the National Basic Livelihood Security benefits and public senior employment programs is needed. A second-tier safety net should be developed for older adults with incomes above 50 percent of the standard median income threshold or between 30 and 50 percent of median income. For this group, a progressive reform of the Basic Pension―one that provides relatively greater benefits to lower-income individuals―should be coordinated with the earned income tax credit, public-interest senior employment programs, social service jobs, old-age benefits under the National Pension, and housing pension schemes. The third tier should cover older adults with incomes at or above 75 percent of the standard median income threshold or above 50 percent of median income. For this group, greater emphasis should be placed on the National Pension, retirement pensions, reverse mortgages, and private-sector senior employment programs. However, these reforms―progressive reform of the Basic Pension, expansion of senior employment programs, and integration with the National Basic Livelihood Security Scheme―may also create gaps in income protection for younger and middle-aged generations and increase fiscal pressures. Therefore, complementary measures should be developed to mitigate these potential effects.