Ministry of Health and Welfare finds home-care demand rising

The Ministry of Health and Welfare said that 69.4 percent of home-care recipients in its 2025 long-term care survey wanted to remain in their current homes even if their health worsened, up from 49.8 percent in 2022.

The survey showed an older recipient population and more home-care recipients living alone: People aged 85 or older accounted for 47.3 percent of long-term care recipients, up from 44.2 percent in 2022, while those living alone made up 43.6 percent of home-care recipients, against 40.2 percent in 2022.

The ministry attributed the rise in recipients aged 85 or older to growth in the very elderly population, longer periods of care for existing recipients and an increase in new approvals for people in that age group.

Choi Bong-geun, the ministry's director-general for elderly policy, said the government would continue reforms to ensure older people can receive needed care where they live, increase the adequacy and variety of home-care services and create stable working conditions for care workers.

Among recipients' families, 84.6 percent said they were satisfied with the long-term care insurance system, and more than 70 percent said services had eased their care burden, though 51.6 percent continued to feel burdened.

Home-care services were used by 80 percent of recipients and supplied by 80.6 percent of long-term care institutions. People aged 60 or older represented 63.4 percent of long-term care workers, while 62.2 percent of workers seeking better treatment selected higher pay as their main request. Institutions cited recruiting users, evaluations and staff hiring as their leading operating difficulties, with excessive competition the most common reason given for recruitment problems.

The ministry plans to formalize short-term care at day-and-night facilities for families facing emergency care gaps, raise monthly home-care benefit limits for recipients with the greatest care needs, broaden tailored services including hospital accompaniment and expand providers that combine multiple forms of home care.