'Senior Centers to Provide Lunch 5 Days a Week' Nears Reality... Elderly Welfare 3 Acts Passed by National Assembly

'Government Passes Bill to Support Meal Expenses at Gyeongrodang
Law Also Ensures Elderly Wages and Expands Public Nursing Facilities'

The 'Three Senior Welfare Acts,' including a bill establishing grounds for providing meals to the elderly at community centers, have passed the National Assembly. This is expected to realize the Democratic Party's general election pledge and the Yoon Suk-yeol administration's initiative to support meals at community centers five days a week.

Woo Won-sik, Speaker of the National Assembly, is striking the gavel at the plenary session held at the National Assembly on the 2nd. Photo by Kim Hyun-min

On the afternoon of the 2nd, the National Assembly plenary session passed an amendment to the Senior Welfare Act allowing the government to support food expenses (副食費) at community centers. Under the current law, the government can support the purchase of grains and heating/cooling costs for community centers. As a result, some community centers that could not prepare side dishes such as banchan besides rice had to give up providing meals. With this amendment, the government budget can now include food expenses for community centers, laying the foundation for 'five-day-a-week meal support.'

The expansion of meal provision at community centers was a pledge made by both ruling and opposition parties during the last general election. The Democratic Party proposed 'providing lunch five days a week at community centers' as their third election pledge, while the People Power Party pledged to increase the number of days for senior lunch provision at community centers to seven days a week as their sixth election pledge. In May, the Ministry of Health and Welfare announced that "the government will gradually expand the number of days meals are provided at 58,000 community centers serving seniors from 3.4 days per week to 5 days per week."

People lined up to receive free meals during the Lunar New Year holiday.

A report released in June by the Legislative Research Office also emphasized the need to expand meal support for the elderly. Gu Seul, head of the Health, Welfare, and Women’s Team at the Social and Cultural Research Office of the Legislative Research Office, analyzed, "A shift in perception is required to see this not as a populist pledge but as an 'investment' in preparation for a super-aged society," adding, "It is necessary to expand the target of meal support services."

Additionally, the amendment to the Act on Senior Employment and Social Activity Support, which stipulates that wages for senior jobs must be at least the minimum wage, and the partial amendment to the Long-Term Care Insurance Act for the Elderly, which specifies government efforts to expand public long-term care institutions, were also processed by the National Assembly. The Three Senior Welfare Acts hold significance as bipartisan livelihood bills passed amid political strife, including the impeachment motion against the Auditor General.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.