"You have to grab your lunch ticket quickly before they run out!"

At 7 a.m. on February 20, in the alley in front of the east gate of Tapgol Park in Jongno-gu, Seoul. Seomou (75), with white hair, held up a paper ticket marked "No. 29" and a red sticker marked "No. 91" and nudged the person in front. They were two free meal tickets. Behind him, a line of elderly people waiting for breakfast stretched from the north gate past the west gate wall.

Lines continued even during the Lunar New Year... hundreds of elderly in their 70s and 80s turned up
Pensions alone barely cover living expenses... a quagmire of poverty due to divorce and other factors
The 'Nonyeon Sarangbang' leaves Tapgol Park and moves to Anguk Station Welfare Center
Bean sprout soup 3,000 won, seolleongtang free - seniors monopolize the 'cheap eateries'

The daily routine of the elderly at Tapgol Park follows a "three-meal map." If they secure two lunch tickets at dawn, they line up at the Wongaksa free meal center to take care of breakfast. At lunchtime, they exchange the two tickets for a bowl of vegetable rice and a boxed meal, saving the boxed meal for dinner. In effect, they split the free meal service into three separate meals to fill their stomachs.

Park Janghee (69), who lined up again for lunch after breakfast, was here even during the Lunar New Year holidays. He said he divorced about 20 years ago and began coming for free meals because it was hard to manage his household on his pension alone. It is said that, like Seo and Park, there are hundreds of elderly people in their 70s and 80s who spend their day following this "three-meal map."

After finishing a meal, the elderly picked up their cooling boxed dinners and headed one by one to the Anguk Station Senior Welfare Center. Tapgol Park had been their community hangout, but after the use of game boards was banned, they moved to this new refuge. Pointing to various spots along the alley leading to the center, Park rattled off the menus of what he called "cost-effective eateries." He said, "Here, kongnamul-guk is 3,000 won, and if you go to the Cheonsa Free Meal Center over there, they give you seolleongtang. Sometimes churches hand out food too."

Although some analyses say that the elderly poverty rate has eased, the impoverished lives of many seniors have not substantially improved in reality. Some analysts say this is a statistical illusion caused by the entry of the economically active baby-boom generation into old age. Critics argue that more fine-tuned policies targeting low-income seniors are needed.

According to the results of the Household Finance and Welfare Survey recently released by the National Data Office on February 25, the elderly poverty rate in 2024 (the relative poverty rate among those aged 65 and over) based on disposable income stood at 35.9 percent, the lowest level on record. Compared with 38.2 percent in 2023, this is a decrease of 2.3 percentage points, raising hopes that the trend has turned downward.

Disposable income-based poverty rate 35.9%...record low
By market income standard it is 54.9%, meaning half are poor without government support
Poverty rate among those aged 75 and over 73.8%...a clear gap between earlier and later elderly
"We should not lump all elderly together"...call for policies targeting low-income groups

In this survey, "disposable income" refers to the amount obtained by adding pensions and various subsidies received from the state and then subtracting taxes and similar payments. In other words, it is the money actually available to spend. However, when converted to a market income basis, the elderly poverty rate rises to 54.9 percent. Market income refers to income earned without government assistance.

There is also an analysis that the incorporation of the relatively "better-off" second baby-boom generation (those born from 1964 to 1974) into the elderly population has distorted the statistics. According to recently released social trends data from the National Statistical Research Institute, in 2023 the market-income-based poverty rate for households headed by younger-old seniors (aged 65 to 74) was 40.5 percent, while for older-old seniors (aged 75 and over) it reached 73.8 percent. The poverty alleviation effect was also 44.1 percent for the younger-old, but only 22.4 percent for the older-old.

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Experts argue that, to solve problems facing the elderly, policymakers must move away from frameworks that lump all older people together as a single group. Jung Soondool, a professor in the Department of Social Welfare at Ewha Womans University, said, "As baby boomers who have prepared for old age enter the senior population, disparities among the elderly have widened," adding, "If you treat seniors as one group, the problems beneath the surface are obscured." She stressed, "The basic pension should focus more on the poorest elderly, while healthy seniors should be supported to continue economic activity by building a foundation for 'active aging'."