"Introducing Personal Budget System for Disabled Like Overseas"... Gradual Expansion of Eligible Persons and Usage

The 6th Comprehensive Plan for Disability Policy Public Hearing by the Ministry of Health and Welfare
Photo by Yonhap News

A ‘Personal Budget System for Persons with Disabilities,’ allowing individuals with disabilities to choose welfare services within a certain monetary limit, will be introduced. The government plans to initially implement this system for limited services targeting some persons with disabilities and gradually expand the eligible recipients and service providers.

On the 9th, the government announced the adoption of the 6th Comprehensive Plan for Disability Policy (2023?2027) at the 24th ‘Disability Policy Coordination Committee’ chaired by Prime Minister Han Duck-soo. The Personal Budget System for Persons with Disabilities is one of the ‘120 National Tasks’ announced by President Yoon Suk-yeol in July last year. Major countries such as Sweden, the United Kingdom, and Australia have already implemented personal budget systems based on the principle of guaranteeing the rights of persons with disabilities.

The Personal Budget System for Persons with Disabilities will be pilot-operated from next year after a mock application study involving 120 recipients of disability activity support services in four local governments this year. The government proposed two models to be applied in the mock application study. First, the ‘Benefit Flexibility Model’ supports costs for public services such as developmental rehabilitation, emergency care, and medical services, or private services such as personal vehicles for persons with disabilities and housing environment improvements, within 10% of the disability activity support benefits according to individual support plans. Considering that the average monthly activity support benefit is 2.02 million KRW, it can be used up to a limit of 200,000 KRW per month. The second is the ‘Utilization of Service Providers Model,’ which supports personnel (nurses, speech and physical therapists, gait instructors, etc.) who can provide necessary services within 20% (about 400,000 KRW) of the activity support benefits. A government official said, “After deriving the business model through this year’s mock application, we plan to conduct pilot projects in local governments in 2024 and fully implement the system in 2026.”

“In the future, we plan to review expanding the use to transportation costs, education expenses, and cultural leisure expenses,” the official added.

Additionally, the quality of services provided to persons with disabilities will be improved. The number of recipients of disability activity support will be expanded from 140,000 this year to 170,000 by 2027, and efforts will be made to diversify services and improve the treatment of workers. Starting in April, a pilot project will be introduced to provide 24-hour care for one week when temporary care is needed due to psychological exhaustion of guardians of persons with developmental disabilities. An integrated care service support system considering the individual needs and environment of persons with severe developmental disabilities will be established by June next year.

The scale of support for employment of persons with disabilities will be gradually expanded from 30,000 this year to 40,000 by 2027. Through customized job development by disability type, comprehensive income activity surveys, and linkage support between employment and vocational training, jobs will be provided to persons with disabilities who have difficulty finding employment to guarantee income.

Moreover, the government plans to increase the unit amount of employment incentives for persons with disabilities and expand the payment scale. The support amount for disability pensions will continue to increase reflecting inflation. This year, the basic monthly disability pension amount was raised by 5.1% from the previous year to a maximum of 403,180 KRW.

To expand mobility rights for persons with disabilities, the introduction of low-floor city buses will be expanded to 65% by 2027. Since this year, the introduction of low-floor buses has been mandatory when replacing or retiring route buses, but the current introduction rate of low-floor city buses stands at only 34%.

A mid- to long-term roadmap will be supplemented to strengthen the independence and housing decision rights of persons with disabilities residing in facilities. Residential facilities for persons with disabilities will be improved to promote independent living, and a phased transition to specialized service providers for persons with severe disabilities will be pursued. The government estimated that the necessary budget for this comprehensive plan is approximately 31.3 trillion KRW.

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