Assemblyman Jo O-seop: "Urgent Need to Systematize Two-Person Teams for Housing Benefit Surveyors"

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Yoon Jamin] The number of housing benefit recipients classified as high-risk households is increasing, prompting calls for the establishment of a ‘two-person team’ system for housing benefit investigators.

Moreover, LH has drawn criticism for unrealistic quarantine guidelines related to face-to-face investigations despite the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to Assemblyman Jo Oseop (Democratic Party of Korea, Gwangju Buk-gu Gap) on the 8th, “The number of households requiring two-person team investigations classified as high-risk among housing benefit recipients was 418 in 2018, 481 in 2019, and 499 as of July 2020.

Although the figure is based on July this year, it is expected to surpass last year’s number and increase further by the end of the year.

In 2020, there were a total of 468 housing benefit investigators, of whom 379 (81%) were women. The number of high-risk households due to infectious diseases, malicious complaints, violence, sexual harassment, etc., increased by 23.3% (44 households) compared to 2018 (189 households).

Among housing benefit recipient households, those with risk factors such as ex-convicts, drug and alcohol addicts are supposed to be investigated by two-person teams as a principle.

However, it is not easy for housing benefit investigators to receive detailed risk type information or markings indicating the need for two-person team investigations from local governments.

This is because providing high-risk household information is a recommendation rather than a mandatory obligation, and local governments are reluctant due to concerns about personal information leakage.

Accordingly, although the number of incidents involving housing benefit investigators suffering verbal abuse, assault, sexual harassment, etc., has increased to a total of 172 cases over the past three years, ‘two-person team investigations’ for high-risk households remain a distant reality.

Verbal abuse accounted for most cases with 135, followed by 19 cases of animal-related harm, 9 cases of sexual harassment, and 5 cases of assault.

Meanwhile, LH resumed housing benefit investigations in July after suspending them since late February due to COVID-19 and issued quarantine and response guidelines, but some voices say these are unrealistic.

Maintaining a distance of more than 1 meter from recipients makes conversation difficult with elderly people and increases the likelihood of constant contact, exposing investigators to infection risks.

Reducing the time spent per household is also problematic as additional procedures such as fever checks increase, potentially lengthening the time spent instead.

Regarding this, an LH official said, “We fully empathize with the safety issues of investigators and are reviewing realistic additional measures to address this.”

Assemblyman Jo Oseop stated, “Investigators are performing housing benefit support duties for the housing vulnerable on the front lines of housing welfare,” and added, “The system should be improved so that the ‘need for two-person team investigation’ can be entered in the Social Security Information System (Happiness e-um) input field to ensure they can work in a safe environment.”

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