KWDI Korean Women’s Development Institute

Ⅰ. Need for and Purpose of the Study

Living an active life and not feeling left out from the society at an old age is an exciting yet concerning prospect for many people nearing old age. To stay active as well as productive in old age, you need to prepare yourself in your perception and capabilities. To have an active and productive life in old age, it is important to positively accept life during old ages, plan and prepare self-reliant living as well as get proper education and training to develop skills needed to participate in economic and social activities. There has been education to prepare for later life and retirement, and the awareness of the need for such education has also steadily grown. That is, individuals and society as a whole have been increasingly aware of the importance of overcoming old-age crises and improving the quality of life by planning ahead for later life. In recent years, government policies have also emphasized the importance of services related to old age, such as consultation and education for later life planning. The purpose of this study is to explore policy tasks that can help old women prepare for a productive and active life both economically and socially through later life planning. To this end, the study aims to investigate the demands for later life planning services among women in their 40s through 60s and to which extent those services are available. Based on the survey result, the study will suggest policy tasks to help older women prepare ahead for their life in older years through later life planning.

 

Ⅱ. Preparation and Planning for Old Age

At a time when people increasingly live longer in old age, they need to prepare themselves to remain as active and productive as young and middle-aged people while continuing to grow and develop. Individually and socially, the awareness of and the demands for life planning for the senior population are growing, and accordingly, basic pension plans as well as policies dealing with health and leisure of old-aged people are increasing. Among others, people are increasingly paying attention to those services that help them plan ahead for their older years from their mid-life. To prepare for an aging society, it is important to expand social safety nets at the government level, but not all measures can be prepared by the government. Inducing participation by individuals and the private sector will be as important. In recent years, active later life planning by individuals has become an important topic to the extent that it draws systematic government support. Currently, many government ministries and local governments are increasing support for later life planning programs, but they are mostly based on educational and service models that focus on retired men. Given that women have different characteristics in financial status, the ability to participate in social activities and the ability to utilize leisure resources compared with men, later life planning that takes into account these gender differences needs to be done.

 

Ⅲ. Participation in and Demands for Later Life Planning Services

In this study, a survey was conducted for women in their 40s through 60s to find out how they are planning for their later years, what kinds of preparations for later life services they demand, and whether they have experiences in participating in later life planning services. To secure a valid sample size from among those with the experience in later life planning services, a quota sampling of 300 people was taken. Finally, total samples are 2,011 and 458 samples with the experience in later life planning services were analyzed

1. Current State of Preparations for Later Life and Related Demands

According to the survey result, 59.7% of respondents were concerned of their later years. This can be understood that the majority of women in their 40s through 60s are concerned about their life in old age. 62.8% of respondents said they are worried because of their preparations for later life, which is even bigger than the number of women who had vague concerns about their later life. Only 52.8% of women in their 40s through 60s said they are well-prepared for their later life. The self-evaluation score in preparations for later life was 2.9, and the evaluation scores in personal relations and health stood at 3.1 and 2.9 on average. On the other hand, leisure and financial status received relatively low scores at 2.6 and 2.7, respectively on average, indicating that women are relatively less prepared in these areas. Awareness of the need for preparations for later life was relatively high at 3.4 on a scale of 4. The higher education and family income, the higher awareness of the need for preparations for later life was found. Women wanted to be more self-reliant when they reach older ages: 78.0% of respondents said that they should prepare for their old age without relying on their spouses. Younger-aged women and women with higher education and higher income were less likely to be reliant on their spouses in preparing for their older years. 92.5% of women in their 40s through 60s replied that they wanted to plan well for their life in old age. Demands for preparations for later life were high at 3.2 points on average, but the self-assessment for the ability to prepare for old age was low at 2.5 points, suggesting that there is a need to have a policy that can help women develop the capability to prepare for later life. Only 59.0% of women in their 40s through 60s thought that they were well aware of the information and methods to prepare for their older years. When it comes to the difficulties in preparing for later life, the lack of finances was picked as the biggest reason (61.6%), but as many as 13.4% of women also considered the lack of knowledge and information as a problem, an area where government policy needs to provide a solution. Two-thirds of women surveyed had demands for consultation or education for their preparations for later life as well as for services provided by the government. Specifically, 65.9% said they wanted to receive consultation regarding preparations for later life; 68.8% replied they wanted to receive education to acquire information and develop skills; 62.2% answered they wanted to know professional organizations that can help them prepare for later life; and 79.0% said that the government needs to provide consultation and educational services for their preparations for later life. As for institutions where women can get education for preparations for later life, they preferred facilities in their proximity. Educational, cultural, welfare and administrative facilities were chosen by 59.1% of women as their most favored institutions to get them prepared for later life, followed by institutions related to female education and family affairs at 26.2% and colleges and universities at 4.5%. In terms of the most appropriate time to start learning about preparing for later life, the biggest number of women, or 40.8%, said it is from their 40s, followed by 50s at 30.8%. This means that women think preparations for later life need to be started early in their life. In general, educational background, income, pension amount and experience in later life planning services have been analyzed as important factors affecting women's ability to prepare for later life and demands for preparations for later life.

2. Experience in Later Life Planning Services

90% of women with experiences in using later life preparation and planning services received diagnosis and consultation for later life planning, but only 56.3% of women actually moved on to participate in later life planning education. Among those women without the experience in using later life planning services, 33.1% did not know where they could get such services and 29.2% said they did not feel the need for such services. This shows that later life planning services are not widely publicized, related infrastructure is not in place, and the awareness of the need for preparing and planning for later life is low. In terms of what motivated women to participate in later life planning services, 75.8% of women chose recommendation by acquaintances, followed by anxiety about preparing for later life at 46.9%, and a desire to prepare for an active old age at 42.8%. Insurance companies were the most common places where women received later life planning services at 76.2%, followed by local educational, cultural, welfare and administrative facilities at 15.7%, and institutions related to female and family affairs at 8.7%. When satisfaction with the services was surveyed in terms of diagnosis/consultation for later life planning and education for later life planning, 81.8% of respondents were satisfied with the diagnosis and consultation for later life planning, while more respondents or 91.8% said they were satisfied with education for later life planning. Short-term education lasting less than one week was received by an absolute majority of women: 46.9% of women received education for later life planning lasting one to seven days, while 36.4% of women received such education for less than one day. A considerable number of women (70.9%) said they participated in education for later life planning in order to obtain knowledge and information needed for preparing for their old age. The more educated women were, the more connection to social activities or work they showed (13.4%), and the more household income women had, the more women felt the education would be helpful in their self-development. When the survey participants were asked to score the education to find out whether such education was actually helpful in preparing for their life in old age, they gave the highest score (3.2) to the acquisition of information needed for preparing for later life, followed by boosted confidence in their later life (3.0), ability to make specific later life planning (2.9), reduced anxiety about later life (2.8) and enhanced capability to prepare for later life (2.8). A self-evaluation was conducted to understand if education for later life planning was conducive to improving the capability to prepare for old age. Financial ability was given the highest score at 2.9 on average, followed by health, personal relations and aging at 2.8, respectively, work, leisure life and self-development at 2.7. Contribution to society was given the lowest score at 2.6 on average. The high score in financial ability seems to be attributed to the fact that current education for later life planning has mostly been offered by financial institutions such as the National Pension Service and insurance companies. It also means that education for later life planning in Korea is quite leaning toward finance. Besides the survey, interviews were also conducted with middle-aged and older women with experiences in using later life planning services in order to find out what made them to receive such education, how often they received such education, how much they were satisfied and where they felt policy support was needed. The interviews revealed that middle-aged and older women had many expectations when they participated in later life planning services. These included self-development, social participation as well as employment. The interviewees said that the later life planning programs provided an important "motivation" in getting them to plan for later life as well as "courage" and "confidence" to try new things.

 

Ⅳ. Policy Tasks The study found that women's overall preparation in their later years showed statistically significant differences depending on whether they received later life planning services or not. Therefore, getting later life planning services is very important in preparing for old age as well as building required capabilities.

1. Expansion of Later Life Planning Services for Self-Directed Preparations for Later Life

An aging society can be dealt with by the government's welfare policy, but this approach alone has its limitations. What is needed is the effort to raise awareness among individuals and get them to prepare ahead for later life by building necessary capabilities. Awareness among women in their 40s through 60s about the need to plan for old age is very high at 97.0%, and 78.0% of women believe that they should not rely on their spouses in their old age planning. However, they have weak capabilities to plan for their life in older years. Naturally, women are very concerned about their life in old age (59.7%) and feel a strong need to make preparations and build necessary capabilities. Therefore, it is necessary to expand opportunities for more women to participate in preparations and planning services for later life. Nearly 79.0% of women believe that the government needs to provide services for preparations for later life, which include consultation and education. 65.9% of women said they want to receive consultation for their older years and 68.8% of women wanted to receive education to learn skills needed to obtain information and capabilities, while about a half of them, or 49.9%, said they would be willing to pay for such services. Women's wider participation in preparations for later life diagnosis and consultation and education for later life planning services requires enhanced publicity of information on existing services, expansion of free programs and improved access to local facilities etc.

2. Diagnosis and Consultation for Preparations for Later Life

As women in their 40s and older are found to be highly interested in later life planning, it seems desirable that later life planning services should target these age groups. If later life planning is done late, finding a job seems particularly difficult. Therefore, it is necessary to raise awareness of the need to prepare for life in old age from women in their 40s and begin later life planning and preparation with the necessary diagnosis, consultation and skill development from women in their 50s at the latest.

3. Expansion of Educational Programs for Later Life Planning to Improve Weak Capabilities

Of women who used later life planning services, as many as 90.0% received related diagnosis and consultation. However, only 56.3% of them received education. Women who had participated in educational programs for later life preparation and planning received help in boosting confidence, reducing anxiety, obtaining information, building capabilities and planning for later life. Therefore, good preparations for later life involve not only getting consultation but also getting proper education. While quite a lot of women, or 68.8%, want to receive education, many of them end up getting diagnosis only. Therefore, more educational opportunities need to be provided. Education for later life planning needs to be provided based on the understanding of where women have high demands and where they possess weak capabilities. Areas where women's demands are high, but their capabilities are relatively weak include learning, work and leisure. It will be desirable to promote a balanced development of capabilities, including those in learning, work and leisure.

4. Enhancement of Follow-up Services

Follow-up services after education for preparations and planning for later life were found to be very insufficient. 52.3% of women who had received education did not receive any follow-up services. Women wanted to get additional support in various areas, including intensive education in each category of later life planning at 39.1%, provision of job information at 27.5%, referral to other specialized institutions at 14.7%, consultation at 14.0%, and group meetings at 1.9%. Therefore, it will be essential to develop follow-up service models based on the diverse demands of women.

5. Improvement of the Expertise and Quality of Later Life Planning Services

While education for later life planning was of help in getting information and improving capabilities needed to prepare for life in old age, it was not enough to raise capabilities needed for specific later life planning and preparation to satisfying levels. In that regard, programs that enable women to make practical later life planning and develop necessary capabilities will need to be in place. In addition, diverse educational programs that can be chosen by students based on their levels, improvement of instructors and provision of more professional and quality services will be needed.

6. Gender-Sensitive Pension Policy and Financial Planning Services for Women

Household income and enrollment to pension plans and the national pension scheme were found to have a significantly positive impact on the extent people are prepared for their life in old age. In light of this, there is a need to have a policy that induces at least those women in the blind spot of the national pension scheme to be enrolled. Only 67.5% of women in their 40s through 60s were found to be members or recipients of pensions. The younger women were, and the higher education and income levels, the more women were members or recipients of pensions. Therefore, there is a big need to make women aware of the importance of financial planning and pension enrollment for their later years through later life planning services. As women are less likely to be economically prepared for their older years, a gender-sensitive approach to financial consultation and planning is needed, taking into account career interruption often experienced by women, high unemployment rates, unpaid family care and other economic characteristics of women.