The Evaluation Period for Work Ability of Basic Livelihood Security Recipients Will Be Extended to 1-2 Years

[Asia Economy Reporter Byeon Seon-jin] The Ministry of Health and Welfare announced on the 29th that it will revise the "Notice on Standards for Work Ability Assessment" to simplify the work ability assessment procedure for recipients of the National Basic Livelihood Security Program.

This measure was prepared as part of the "Measures to Improve the Welfare Blind Spot Discovery and Support System," jointly developed by the Ministry of Health and Welfare and related ministries in November, to reduce the burden and inconvenience of assessments for vulnerable groups.

Minister Cho Kyu-hong announcing measures to improve the system for identifying and supporting welfare blind spots [Image source=Yonhap News]

According to the revision, the validity period of assessments for people with long-term no work ability will be extended from December next year, and the scope of "permanent fixed diseases" exempt from medical evaluation will be expanded from January next year.

Currently, under the Basic Livelihood Security System, if a recipient is judged to have "no work ability" due to illness or injury, livelihood and medical benefits are provided without work conditions during the validity period.

With this revision, if a person who has been assessed as "no work ability" twice consecutively is also assessed as "none" in the next evaluation, the validity period will be extended by one year for mild diseases and two years for severe diseases compared to the existing validity period. However, mild disease cases with high potential for improvement are excluded from the extension.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare expects that the evaluation cycle for a total of 84,000 people will be extended, reducing their burden.

Additionally, the permanent fixed diseases exempt from medical evaluation, which previously included 10 diseases such as amputation and organ transplantation, will be expanded to a total of 17 diseases with the addition of 7 diseases including joint fusion surgery of the arms and legs and anophthalmia. The Ministry expects about 5,700 recipients to be recognized with these 17 permanent fixed diseases.

Jung Choong-hyun, Welfare Policy Officer at the Ministry of Health and Welfare, stated, "This validity period extension measure was made by analyzing 10 years of past assessment data using big data," and added, "We will continue to actively discover and support socially vulnerable groups to realize welfare for the underprivileged."

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