Gyeonggi Council Democratic Party "Current Welfare System Causing Blind Spots Must Be Fully Reexamined"

[Asia Economy (Suwon) = Reporter Lee Young-gyu] The Democratic Party of Gyeonggi Provincial Assembly has argued that a fundamental review of the current welfare system, which creates blind spots, is necessary.

On the 30th, the Democratic Party issued a statement saying, "Recently, tragic deaths among the poor and socially vulnerable groups, such as the Suwon three mothers case, have occurred one after another, raising voices demanding a thorough inspection of the inadequate welfare system," and directly criticized, "The deaths of the three mothers exposed the vulnerable welfare blind spots in our society as they are."

They continued, "In the case of the Suwon three mothers, the mother was battling ovarian cancer, and the eldest daughter was suffering from a rare disease, placing them in an economically desperate situation, but they did not receive emergency livelihood support, emergency medical support, or housing support," and pointed out, "Due to severe financial hardship, their health insurance premiums were overdue for 16 months, but they were not included in the intensive investigation target institutions and thus fell out of the primary management network."

Furthermore, they criticized, "Our society's vulnerable welfare system also reveals its bare face in the successive deaths of youth who have aged out of protective care," stating, "Two young people from orphanages who started living independently had to take their own lives in recent days due to an uncertain future and financial hardship."

In particular, they claimed, "In response to the consecutive deaths of impoverished families, the media and government focus on discovering welfare blind spots and continuously release countermeasures, but fundamental poverty measures such as welfare expenditure, which was only 12.2% of GDP in Korea compared to the OECD average of 20% in 2019, high eligibility criteria for welfare recipients, and low levels of coverage are excluded from the discussion."

According to the Ministry of Health and Welfare, as of July this year, among the 523,900 people selected as welfare blind spot discovery targets, only 271,102 cases, or 51.8%, actually led to support. Most of these were private-linked services such as in-kind support. Only 10,774 people, 4% of the support targets, received public support. Even if the three mothers applied for welfare services, the possibility of not being selected for various reasons was high.

The situation is more serious for youth who have aged out of protective care. Youth who have left orphanages receive only a settlement support fund of 5 million won from local governments and a monthly independence allowance of 350,000 won for five years, leaving them alone in the world.

The Democratic Party evaluated, "It is very encouraging that Gyeonggi Province has shown prompt action by urgently operating a hotline system directly under the governor, running the 120 emergency welfare counseling call center, establishing and operating a crisis neighbor discovery team, and signing MOUs with public-private cooperation institutions."

They added, "Efforts are also being made to provide the highest nationwide independence support settlement fund of 15 million won to youth who have aged out of protective care, mandate financial education, and expand the scope of support for jeonse housing."

However, the Democratic Party argued, "A comprehensive review of the National Basic Livelihood Security System, which is a fragile safety net supporting numerous vulnerable groups, is necessary," and insisted, "Welfare expenditure, which is woefully insufficient compared to OECD countries, must be drastically increased, and the welfare system must shift from a demand-driven application-based welfare to a demand-discovery welfare system."

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