Constitutional Court: "Merit Allowance Paid to Only One Eldest Child... Unconstitutional"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Baek Kyunghwan] The Constitutional Court has ruled that the legal provision allowing only the eldest child among the descendants of national merit recipients to receive the allowance is unconstitutional.

On the 25th, the Constitutional Court issued a unanimous decision of constitutional inconsistency in a constitutional review case claiming that the Act on the Honorable Treatment and Support of Persons of Distinguished Service to the State, which sets the criteria for payment of compensation to national merit recipients, violates the right to equality.

A, a bereaved family member of a police officer who died in the line of duty, filed a lawsuit in 2017 claiming entitlement to the allowance after the allowance for children of soldiers who died in the Korean War was paid only to his older brother B. The relevant provision stipulates that the allowance is paid to only one child with priority among the children of soldiers or police officers who died in the line of duty after participating in the Korean War or other conflicts. Article 13, Paragraph 2, Subparagraph 1 of the same law states that priority is given to the eldest child.

The Constitutional Court accepted A's claim. The court pointed out, "It is unreasonable to determine the order of allowance payment based on the accidental circumstance of age." Due to the impact of nuclear families, it is difficult to assume that the eldest child supports other siblings, and it cannot be assumed that only the eldest child presides over ancestral rites, so priority should not be determined solely based on age.

Furthermore, the court stated, "If the allowance is paid to only one child, the livelihood protection of the other children who do not even receive a small allowance becomes insufficient," and ruled that "it is unreasonable not to allow exceptions for expanding the scope of beneficiaries."

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