No More "Se Monyeo Incident"... Identifying Crisis Situations Through Disease and Debt Information

Utilizing Severe Illness Status Including Cancer
Gradual Increase in Livelihood Benefit Eligibility Criteria
Establishing a Prevention System for Solitary Deaths of Single-Person Households

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Young-won] The government is strengthening the identification of vulnerable households by newly adding information such as whether catastrophic medical expenses support is provided and whether severe disease special cases apply. To ensure sufficient support for these households, the eligibility criteria for livelihood benefits will also be gradually raised.

On the 24th, the Ministry of Health and Welfare, together with related ministries, announced the "Measures to Improve the Welfare Blind Spot Identification and Support System" containing these details. The main focus of this plan is to accurately identify vulnerable households, provide swift and substantial support, and respond to new welfare blind spots such as single-person households.

Following the 2014 "Songpa Three Mothers" incident, where help was not received despite a crisis situation leading to extreme choices, the government established a welfare blind spot identification system. However, the "Suwon Three Mothers" incident occurred on August 21st this year. Since then, the Ministry of Health and Welfare formed a dedicated task force (TF) for improving the identification and support system in September, consulting with experts, welfare workers, and local governments to discuss improvement measures and prepare this plan.

Utilizing Disease Information Such as Severe Illness... Expanding Criteria for Debt Information Acquisition

First, to accurately identify vulnerable households, the government will expand the information used to include disease, debt, and employment data. Previously, 34 types of information such as power and water cutoffs and health insurance premium arrears were used to identify vulnerable households, but from this month, 5 types of information will be added, with another 5 types added in the second half of next year. In the case of diseases, severe illnesses are likely to lead to economic crises due to treatment, caregiving, or income loss from unemployment, so information such as whether catastrophic medical expense support is provided and whether severe disease special cases apply will be used to identify those at risk of economic crisis.

Considering the increasing debt burden due to economic contraction and high interest rates, the criteria for acquiring debt information will be expanded, and debt amounts and debt adjustment information will be newly acquired. The criteria for acquiring delinquency information will be expanded from "between 1 million KRW and 10 million KRW" over the past two years to "between 1 million KRW and 20 million KRW." Additionally, while only water and gas cutoffs were previously used as crisis information, from the second half of next year, overdue water and gas bill information will also be utilized.

The government plans to improve the identification model to detect welfare blind spots at the household level rather than the individual level. This aims to discover vulnerable households that could not be identified by the individual-level model. For example, a two-person household A living in a small room is a cancer patient, and his son B is in crisis due to health insurance premium arrears, loan delinquency, and suspension of debt adjustment procedures. However, under the current individual model, only A's housing vulnerability information and B's health insurance premium arrears and loan delinquency information are acquired, making it relatively difficult to select them as targets for identification. With this plan, A's cancer patient registration information and B's debt adjustment suspension information will be newly acquired, allowing them to be selected as targets for identification.

Rapid Identification of 'Contact Lost' Households... Strengthening Support Coverage

To provide swift and substantial support, the government has improved the system to quickly locate vacant and contact-lost households. Contact information of targets held by related agencies such as the Ministry of the Interior and Safety and telecommunications companies, as well as building and unit numbers of multi-family houses, will be linked. The format of moving-in notification forms will be revised to acquire contact information not only of the head of household but also of household members.

To ensure sufficient support after rapid identification of vulnerable households, the government will gradually strengthen the coverage of basic livelihood security. The government plans to gradually raise the eligibility criteria for livelihood benefits to 35% of the median income. To this end, the necessity will be reviewed through an adequacy evaluation of benefits in the basic livelihood security survey, and efforts will be made to include a comprehensive roadmap for raising eligibility criteria in the "3rd Basic Livelihood Security Comprehensive Plan" scheduled for August next year.

Additionally, the median income for next year will be raised by 5.47%, the highest level since 2015. For a four-person household, it will increase from 5,121,000 KRW this year to 5,401,000 KRW next year. The median income standard is used as the eligibility criterion for benefits such as basic livelihood security livelihood benefits.

The government plans to revise guidelines so that emergency welfare support can be received not only at the registered resident address but also at the actual residence's city, county, or district office anywhere.

Tailored Response to New Welfare Blind Spots

Measures have also been prepared to respond to new welfare demands arising from social environmental changes such as single-person households, youth preparing for independence, and youth caring for family members. First, to respond to changes in family structure centered on single-person households, a system for preventing and managing solitary deaths will be established. The government will establish a "Basic Plan for Solitary Death" containing policy tasks for the next five years by the end of this year and will prepare a "National Solitary Death Crisis Response System" by December 2025.

For youth caring for family members with disabilities or mental/physical illnesses, a system for identification and support will be developed based on surveys conducted in April and August this year. The government plans to conduct a "Tailored Pilot Project for Youth Caring for Family Members" next year to provide customized services such as caregiving, nursing, and hospital accompaniment according to individual welfare needs of youth.

Minister of Health and Welfare Cho Kyu-hong stated, "We will find and support vulnerable households through all possible means such as information linkage and public-private cooperation for those in economic crisis who find it difficult to ask for help themselves. We will continue to review measures to strengthen coverage for substantial support after identifying blind spots to implement more meticulous and detailed policies for welfare of the vulnerable."

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