[2023 Budget] Welfare Budget Up 11.8% to 108.9918 Trillion Won ... Expanded Support for Low-Income Groups and Elderly

Accounts for 17% of the total government budget... New investment to expand emergency treatment beds
Basic pension budget increased by 2.42 trillion won... Parental allowance up by 1.25 trillion won

[Asia Economy Reporter Jo In-kyung] The Ministry of Health and Welfare has prepared next year’s budget at a scale of 109 trillion won, nearly 12% higher than this year, to establish a dense social safety net for low-income groups, people with disabilities, and the elderly, and to spend on welfare and growth virtuous cycles, infectious disease response, and biohealth industry development.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare announced on the 30th that the 2023 government budget plan was finalized at the Cabinet meeting, and through this, it plans to fully implement the dense and robust welfare policies of the Yoon Seok-yeol administration.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare’s financial scale for 2023 is 108.9918 trillion won, an 11.8% increase from the 2022 main budget of 97.4767 trillion won. Compared to this year’s budget scale increasing by 8.8% year-on-year and the average growth rate of 11.5% from 2018 to 2022, the increase is significantly larger.

This health and welfare sector budget corresponds to 17.0% of the total government budget of 639 trillion won for next year.

By sector, the social welfare budget expanded by 14.2%, while the health sector budget increased by only 0.6%.

The increased budget is allocated to ▲building a dense and robust social safety net ▲welfare-growth virtuous cycle through welfare investment innovation ▲protection of citizens’ lives and health and fostering the biohealth industry.

Ko Deuk-young, Director of Planning and Coordination at the Ministry of Health and Welfare, said, “Although the government’s budget formulation direction has shifted from expansion to a sound fiscal stance, the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s financial scale was expanded compared to previous years. This reflects the Yoon Seok-yeol administration’s welfare policy direction to provide thicker protection for vulnerable groups in our society even if fiscal spending is reduced.”

Active Protection from Livelihood Instability and Emergency Crises for Low-Income Groups

When preparing next year’s budget plan, the Ministry of Health and Welfare decided to build a dense and robust social safety net for vulnerable groups such as low-income households, people with disabilities, abused children, and the elderly.

First, the basic pension for the elderly will be raised by 4.7%, increasing the standard pension amount from 307,500 won this year to 321,950 won. To this end, an additional 2.4164 trillion won will be invested, raising the related budget to 18.5304 trillion won next year. A new 3.5 billion won has also been allocated to establish a system linking elderly medical care and caregiving.

Next year’s median income standard will be raised by a record-high 5.47%, expanding the target for livelihood benefits to households with a monthly income of 1.62 million won or less for a four-person household, and the asset criteria for livelihood and medical benefit recipients will be relaxed by increasing the deduction limit. As a result, the number of households eligible for livelihood benefits increased by 34,952, and those eligible for medical benefits increased by 12,687, with the support budget increased by 749.4 billion won and 975.1 billion won, respectively.

An additional 140.7 billion won will be invested to raise disability pensions and disability allowances and strengthen income security through job expansion, and 322.6 billion won more will be invested to expand care such as disability activity support and emergency care.

In addition, 7 billion won will be allocated to expand infrastructure for the protection and healing of abused children, 21.4 billion won for supporting youth preparing for independence, and 600 million won more to respond to new welfare demands such as family caregiving youth, isolated and reclusive youth, and solitary deaths.

Strengthening Childcare Environment and Mental Health Safety Nets to Overcome Low Birthrate

The Ministry of Health and Welfare also plans to secure a welfare-growth virtuous cycle through developing and spreading social services accessible to everyone, and through preventive investment and response to low birthrate.

First, to guarantee income lost due to childbirth and childcare and to provide robust support for infant care, from next year, parental benefits of 700,000 won per month for zero-year-old children (350,000 won per month for one-year-old children) will be paid. The budget to support this will increase by 1.2518 trillion won from this year, totaling 1.6249 trillion won.

An innovation fund will be created to expand welfare investment, and 36.8 billion won more will be invested in social service innovation such as developing and disseminating new life services. Preventive investments such as strengthening ICT-based proactive and continuous health management and expanding mental health investment for high-risk suicide groups will receive an additional 1.2 billion won and 4 billion won, respectively.

To protect the lives and health of the people, efforts to respond to COVID-19 and resolve medical care shortages in vulnerable areas will be made, along with expanded investment to foster the biohealth industry.

A new budget of 260.8 billion won has been allocated to install emergency treatment beds (1,700 beds) and negative pressure isolation beds (14 beds) at the National Rehabilitation Center for infectious disease response such as COVID-19. When expanding dedicated treatment beds equipped with facilities and equipment at medical institutions with high treatment capacity such as tertiary general hospitals and general hospitals, 50% of the cost will be supported by national funds. These beds will be used for general patient treatment during normal times and for infectious disease patient treatment in the event of outbreaks such as COVID-19.

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