Income transfers to the elderly in Korea and Taiwan

This article analyses income transfers to elderly households in Korea and T aiwan in order to find out to what extent income maintenance policy contrib utes to the income of elderly households in these countries. It also examin es private transfers to those households since we need to see the outcome o f public policy in the broad picture of welfare mix. The article argues tha t private transfers play a bigger role than public transfers for elderly ho useholds. The poorer households are more dependent on private transfers. Ne vertheless, private transfers failed to help the elderly escape poverty. It shows that elderly households in general and single- and couple-only house holds in particular are far more prone to poverty that the general populati on, Although state pensions are expected to play a bigger role in the futur e after coming into full operation, public policy has so far failed to impr ove the living standard of the elderly This outcome of the research calls f or urgent policy intervention to protect the elderly in the wake of the eco nomic crisis in Korea and the massive earthquake in Taiwan.