농촌노인의 사회안전망 실태와 개선대책

Abstract

우리나라 농촌은 2005년에 65세 이상 노인인구 비율이 18.6%로 초고령사회로 접어들었으며, 인구 고령화가 도시에 비해서 20년 이상 앞서서 진행되고 있다. 농촌 고령화 문제 중의 하나는 대다수 농촌노인들은 별다른 노후대책이 없다는 점이다. 이들은 자녀들의 교육과 뒷바라지에 일생을 바쳐 오늘날의 국가경제 발전에 밑거름이 되었으나 자신들의 노후를 생각할 겨를이 없었다.

정부는 노인들의 기본적인 생활을 보장하기 위해 연금, 국민기초생활보장, 긴급지원 등과 같은 사회안전망제도를 마련하였다. 그러나 대다수 농촌노인들은 사회안전망 밖에 있거나 수혜 정도가 미미한 실정이다. 그리고 우리나라의 노인복지정책은 도시 중심으로 수립되어 왔기 때문에 농업이나 농촌의 특성을 제대로 반영하지 못하였다.

이 연구는 기존 자료조사, 농촌노인 대상 설문조사 및 심층 면접조사, 선진국의 사례분석, 관련 행정조직 및 기관담당자 조사 등을 통해 농촌노인들이 이용할 수 있는 사회안전망의 현황과 문제점을 심층적으로 조사하여 농촌노인의 특성을 감안한 다차원적인 개선대책을 마련하려고 하였다.

The purposes of this study are to analyze current social safety net for the rural elderly, and to suggest policy improvement measures to improve the social safety net. The major research methods include the collection of existing related data, field survey, in-depth interview, and so on. Existing data were collected from related governmental organizations and research institutes. The field survey was conducted among 1,000 elderly residents (aged 65 or older) of 50 rural areas, asking them about their economic activities and social safety. Descriptive statistics such as frequencies, percentage, and means and cross-classification tables were used to summarize the data of the field survey. According to the field survey, 43.2% of the respondents answered that they were participating in farming. Most elderly farmers (83.3%) expressed their intentions to continue farming. Only a small percentage (11.0%) of the respondents answered that they were participating in non-farm economic activities. About two thirds of the respondents had the annual household incomes of 10 million won or less. The average annual household income of the respondents was 8,280,000 won. In the case of the first social safety net (social insurance), the pension recipient ratio was 20.2%. The medical insurance non-recipient ratio was 18.9%. The recipients of employment insurance and industrial accident compensation insurance were very few. In the case of the second social safety net (public assistance), the proportion of recipients in the national basic livelihood security system was only 11.2%. In the case of the third social safety net (urgent support system), most respondents (95.2%) did not know the urgent supporting system. The welfare services that the government must expand and help the rural elderly with priority are cash supports, public medical services, and residential home care services. The basic policy directions to improve the social safety net for the rural elderly are as follows: 1) A participatory and productive welfare paradigm is necessary. 2) A legal system to reflect the characteristics of the rural elderly should be prepared. 3) The welfare budget for the rural elderly should be expanded. 4) The management of welfare business transferred to local governments should be reinforced. 5) The delivery system of social safety net for the rural elderly must be reorganized. 6) The blind spot zone problem of social safety net should be solved.

Researchers: Park, Dae Shik and Choi, Kyeong Hwan Research period: 2006. 1 - 2006. 11. E-mail Address: pds8382@krei.re.kr