No More Tragedies Like 'Songpa Three Women'.. Abolishing the Support Obligation Criteria

[Financial News] In the future, basic living allowance can be received regardless of the income or assets of the support obligor. To this end, the government will gradually abolish the support obligation criteria. This is to prevent tragedies like the 'Songpa Three Women' incident in 2014, where they took their own lives due to financial difficulties.
According to the government on the 27th, the Ministry of Health and Welfare has decided to gradually abolish the support obligation criteria as a national task. It has been pointed out as the biggest barrier to the National Basic Living Security System.
First, the support obligation criteria for living allowance, which is most closely related to supporting vulnerable groups, will be abolished by 2027. This will allow support based solely on the situation of the recipient household, without considering the income or assets of the family.
The criteria for medical allowance will also be simplified by 2030. First, the support obligation system will be abolished by next year. It is a system that disqualifies recipients by assuming support even if the support obligor does not actually provide living expenses, which has been controversial for being unreasonable. The plan is to gradually relax the criteria to apply only to high-income and high-asset support obligors by 2030.
The support obligation criteria is a system that excludes individuals from receiving national living and medical support if they have supporting family members such as parents or children, even if their own assets are below the minimum living cost. As of the end of last year, there were 2.65 million recipients of basic living security benefits. The ratio of recipients to the total population of our country is 5.0%.
The Ministry of Health and Welfare is focusing on policies to reduce welfare blind spots and provide substantial support to vulnerable groups using artificial intelligence (AI). To this end, they plan to establish an AI welfare and care innovation roadmap to precisely predict, discover, and support vulnerable groups.

skjung@fnnews.com Jeong Sang-kyun Reporter