PSPD in English Socio-Economic 2011-02-28   3036

One Hundred Health and Welfare Scholars Urge the Amendment of the National Basic Livelihood Security Act


One Hundred Health and Welfare Scholars Urge the Amendment of the National Basic Livelihood Security Act,
and Demand the Article Stating ‘a Standard on a Person
Who Has an Obligation to Support Family’ Be Rescinded from the Act.



Today (22 February), the Social Welfare Committee of PSPD have announced [The declaration of 100 health and welfare scholars who urge the repeal of the “standard on a person who has an obligation to support a family” article in the National Basic Livelihood Security Act]. Those supporting the repeal include  professors working in health and welfare departments and related researchers.


One hundred scholars made their positions clear with this declaration “The National Basic Livelihood Security Act, which has now reached its 10th anniversary of implementation, was a seminal moment in supporting welfare as ‘the right’ of the people and not a ‘benefaction’. However, because of strict criteria for selection of beneficiaries, it has not been implemented properly as a social security net and the scale of the poor left on the blind spot of the system has reached around 4.1 million.” The group also claimed that “the revision proposal to eliminate the standard on a person supporting family in the selection of beneficiaries must be passed in this session of the National Assembly in order to solve the problem of 1.03 million poor in the dead zone who satisfy the income and property criteria but cannot access the benefit due to the standard.”


They emphasized that: “In considering that over 80% of the 1.03 million people on the blind spot, who cannot access the guaranteed minimum livelihood set by the criterion on a person supporting a family, consist of incompetent workers for example the old or the disabled; government support for this group should be conducted as soon as possible.” They also highlighted the partial mitigation measure, reviewed by some within the government, on the current criterion for judging the ability to support a family, stating that “it is just a stopgap measure, the structural problem remains unresolved,  people can still be rejected as a beneficiary when there is a person who has an obligation to support a family even if they are not able to due to the raising of the standard.”


Finally, the 100 scholars argued that “bills to nullify the standard on a person who has an obligation to support a family have been introduced many times in the past in the National Assembly by all parties, they however have not been subsequently brought up for discussion in the Assembly” and urged that “the National Assembly must strive to establish a sufficient social security net for the poor by repealing the standard on a person supporting a family prior to any other political or budgetary logic. Allowing so many of the poor to fall  into the dead zone is to neglect the state’s prior duty to protect the people, and is to violate the purpose of enacting the National Basic Livelihood Security Act in the first place.”






translated by volunteer Kim Jiyeon
reviewed by volunteer Thomas Cowan
*You can be a volunteer for PSPD. (t3@pspd.org)


 

정부지원금 0%, 회원의 회비로 운영됩니다

참여연대 후원/회원가입


참여연대 NOW

실시간 활동 SNS

텔레그램 채널에 가장 빠르게 게시되고,

더 많은 채널로 소통합니다. 지금 팔로우하세요!