[Inside Chodong] Welfare System Errors Triggered by "Desk Welfare"

Health and Welfare Minister Cho Kyu-hong is visiting Sejong City Hall on the 24th to inspect the work site of the next-generation social security information system.

"The system we used before has been discontinued, and the newly launched system frequently encounters errors, so we're half giving up. We download Excel files and manage everything manually one by one."

The voice of Mr. A, a social welfare officer at the district office on the other end of the phone, was filled with exhaustion and frustration. Although he has been burdened with various civil complaints and excessive work for years due to the nature of his job, this is the first time he cannot even estimate when this makeshift administrative handling will be resolved, and he sighed deeply.

The government has been promoting the 'Next-Generation Social Security Information System' to support fast and efficient welfare administration and to more thoroughly identify welfare blind spots, but since its launch on the 6th of last month, it has not functioned properly for almost two months. Social welfare facilities nationwide are supposed to apply for various welfare allowances through this system, and local government officials must review and pay these allowances. However, frequent errors in the system have caused disruptions in these processes. Most importantly, vulnerable citizens who have been receiving government support every month are unable to receive necessary welfare services on time, putting them in situations that threaten their livelihoods beyond mere inconvenience.

The next-generation welfare system is a large-scale government project that simplifies five government systems used by 22 million social security beneficiaries, including low-income groups, disabled persons, elderly, children, and medical recipients, into three integrated sites. A total of 122 billion KRW has been invested over the past three years.

However, from the first day of launch, problems occurred where subsidy applications and other tasks could not be properly processed in the welfare facility support system. Cases of omission or underpayment of livelihood benefits and housing benefits for basic livelihood security recipients have been frequent. On the 20th of this month, the second welfare benefit payment day after the launch, some beneficiaries still did not receive their payments, prolonging confusion on the ground. Errors during the verification of applicants' income and asset data have also delayed announcements of public rental housing tenant selection and national scholarship calculations for university students.

The primary responsibility for this situation lies with the Ministry of Health and Welfare, which pushed forward the system launch schedule despite knowing that preparations were insufficient. Critics point out that the 'desk welfare' approach of officials eager to show results caused this disaster. A bigger problem is that beyond the errors reported so far, many more issues may continue to arise. On the front lines, there are even complaints that it might be better to revive the previously used system.

The project method requiring large corporations to form consortia with small and medium enterprises for public projects related to new technologies and businesses has also revealed its flaws. Of the 343 system developers, 307 have resigned, indicating severe personnel loss. This reflects the poor and inadequate design and management of government national projects. Although the Ministry of Health and Welfare has now announced plans to deploy additional personnel to fix system errors, many developers shake their heads, saying, "Who would want to suffer by joining such a (failed) project?"

On the ground, there is growing concern that the welfare system errors might cause even greater welfare gaps amid the repeated tragedies of vulnerable groups. With holes in the existing vulnerable group management, there is no capacity to find, care for, and support citizens who should newly receive welfare benefits. The 25th is the day when about 9.22 million citizens (as of last month) receive seven types of benefits, including basic pension, child allowance, and childcare allowance. Under already difficult circumstances, there must be no situation where citizens' minimum daily lives are threatened.

/ Jo In-kyung, Deputy Head of Biohealth Department ikjo@

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