Assemblyman Lee Hyung-seok: "Government Support Standards for Natural Disasters Unchanged for 25 Years"

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Yoon Jamin] Rep. Lee Hyung-seok (Democratic Party of Korea, Gwangju Buk-gu Eul) revealed on the 7th that although the frequency and intensity of natural disasters are increasing due to climate change caused by global warming, the government's disaster relief fund criteria and amounts have remained almost unchanged for the past 25 years.

The government provides disaster relief funds based on the "Regulations on Standards for Burden of Natural Disaster Relief and Recovery Costs" when damage occurs due to natural disasters such as floods or typhoons. This year, due to climate change, the unprecedented longest rainy season and sudden heavy rains caused severe human and material damage nationwide, greatly increasing the demand for disaster relief funds.

However, there was a problem that the damage compensation and disaster compensation standards were created based on past criteria and do not properly reflect current prices or costs.

Fortunately, in August this year, through consultations between the government and the Democratic Party of Korea, relief funds for the deceased, missing, and injured, as well as disaster relief funds for housing damage, were partially increased, but there still seems to be a need to further improve institutional standards.

Currently, disaster recovery cost support for public facilities does not provide national subsidies for damage amounts under 30 million won or recovery costs under 50 million won. In the case of private facilities, disaster relief funds are uniformly paid at a ratio of 70% national funds and 30% local funds when disaster damage occurs.

Because of this, local governments with poor financial conditions are struggling to restore public and private facilities. This is why the government needs to establish standards to differentiate support costs according to the financial capacity index of local governments when calculating disaster relief funds and disaster recovery costs.

The damage support criteria for housing damage caused by natural disasters also limit support for housing sofas only to earthquake damage, so other natural disaster damages do not receive benefits.

Regarding this, Rep. Lee said, "The disaster relief funds created in 1995 do not reflect reality and need improvement," adding, "Support for small businesses damaged by natural disasters is limited to indirect support, so it is urgent to prepare supplementary measures."

Additionally, companies affected by natural disasters receive indirect support such as ▲national tax payment deferral ▲local tax reduction ▲national pension payment deferral ▲recovery fund loans, rather than direct disaster relief funds, increasing the financial burden on companies.

Rep. Lee pointed out, "To supplement this, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety is implementing the Wind and Flood Insurance, a policy insurance that subsidizes more than half of the insurance premium, but the current scope of subscription is limited to small business owners, excluding small enterprises."

He also claimed, "According to data from the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, the average sales difference between small business owners and small enterprises among SMEs is only about 130 million won, which means most small enterprises are also micro businesses."

Looking at the damage amounts to companies caused by natural disasters this year, small business owners suffered an average of about 20 million won, but small enterprises suffered an average of about 150 million won, which is seven times higher than small business owners, yet they do not receive support.

Rep. Lee said, "Due to this year's unusually long rainy season, heavy rains, and typhoons, small business owners and small enterprises also suffered significant damage," adding, "Such damage is expected to continue due to climate change."

He continued, "To ensure that small business owners and small enterprises, which are the foundation of the nation, receive proper damage compensation from natural disasters, I will push to amend the Wind and Flood Insurance Act, which currently covers small business owners, to expand coverage to small enterprises as well."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.