"Only Decision and Resolution Remain"... Pension Reform Special Committee Launches Public Opinion Survey

National Assembly to Receive Public Opinion Survey Results Before and After General Election
Plans to Engage in Final Political Negotiations During Remaining Term of 21st National Assembly After Election

The National Assembly's Special Committee on Pension Reform has decided to conduct a public opinion survey on pension reform by April. The committee expressed its intention to push forward with pension reform before the end of the 21st National Assembly based on the results of the public opinion survey.

On the 16th, Joo Ho-young, chairman of the special committee and member of the People Power Party, along with Yoo Kyung-joon, the committee's secretary from the People Power Party, and Kim Sung-joo from the Democratic Party of Korea, held a press conference at the National Assembly to announce the schedule for the pension reform public opinion survey. The committee presented a blueprint for pension reform, stating that it plans to receive the results of the public opinion survey around the April general election and conduct final negotiations on pension reform. The public opinion survey will discuss not only parametric reforms such as contribution rates and income replacement rates but also structural reforms.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

After the press conference, Chairman Joo met with reporters and said, "I cannot guarantee whether it will be before or after the general election, but after the election, the Pension Reform Special Committee will negotiate and decide based on the (public opinion survey) results." He added, "After the election, until May 28, is the last period of the 21st National Assembly, and it is necessary for the ruling and opposition parties to have sufficient time to discuss." He continued, "If reform is not achieved in this National Assembly, it will have to start anew in the 22nd National Assembly," and said, "There have already been many delays, and much discussion took place during the previous administration, so now only determination and decision remain." He emphasized that the political circles will make their final efforts to reach a decision on pension reform during the 21st National Assembly.

Representative Kim Sung-joo said, "Pension reform will be finalized through legislative discussions," adding, "So far, experts have created certain proposals and various scenarios, and through discussions among stakeholders and a national public opinion survey, the goal is to create a proposal that the ruling and opposition parties can politically compromise on." He explained that the pension reform negotiations between the ruling and opposition parties following the expected announcement of the public opinion survey after the general election will be the most critical turning point in the pension reform discussions.

Under the goal of reaching an agreement on pension reform within the 21st National Assembly, the ruling and opposition parties have agreed to conduct a public opinion survey. To this end, the Pension Reform Special Committee plans to complete the contract for the public opinion survey by the end of January after going through a bidding process related to the 'public opinion on pension reform measures.' The public opinion survey committee will appoint Kim Sang-gyun, emeritus professor of social welfare at Seoul National University, as chairman and will be composed of up to 15 members. The committee will include Special Committee members Kim Sung-joo and Yoo Kyung-joon, as well as Kim Yong-ha and Kim Yeon-myeong, co-chairs of the Special Committee's private advisory committee.

The scope of the public opinion survey will include parametric reforms such as the National Pension income replacement rate, contribution rate, mandatory enrollment age, and benefit age adjustments, as well as structural reforms including the relationship between the basic pension and the National Pension. To this end, the public opinion survey will first form an agenda deliberation group of about 50 people representing key stakeholders in pension reform, such as workers, employers, regional subscribers, and youth, to concretize the agenda into a form suitable for citizen-participatory public deliberation. The second stage is the deliberation phase, where a citizen representative group of about 500 people, recruited through demographic sampling, will learn and discuss the agenda concretized in the first stage to form public opinion and enable citizens to make thoughtful decisions on pension reform measures.

A special committee official introduced, "The future schedule for public deliberation is to form the public opinion committee and start the public opinion survey project by the end of January, and to proceed with the deliberation process swiftly, aiming to announce the results of the public opinion survey as early as possible in April."

Meanwhile, Chairman Joo had previously requested the government to submit a proposal before the public opinion survey during the special committee meetings, but no government proposal was submitted. Regarding this, Chairman Joo said, "The government has not brought any proposal," but added, "At the stage of going through the public opinion process and making decisions, we will strongly demand that the government present its opinions."