2014 Spring Symposium of the Korean Social Security Association held in GIST

"Social consensus should be reached on ‘relative poverty" concept before revision of National Basic Livelihood Security Act
Sustainable expansion of social security through "principle-based decision making’ rather than ‘discretionary operation"

- Prof. Park Neung-hoo, Dr. Yoon Hee-sook, etc. to speak at the symposium

- Over 100 government officials and social security experts to participate in discussion

 

 

 

□ Regarding the revision of the National Basic Livelihood Security Act pursued by the government, it was pointed out that if no social consensus is reached on the concept of ‘relative poverty’ as an alternative to ‘absolute poverty’ before the implementation of the revised law, it may be followed by substantial confusion.

 

Prof. Park Neung-hoo (Social Welfare Department) of Kyonggi University will make a presentation entitled <Examination of Poverty Reduction Policies and Challenges: Before Opening Pandora’s Box> at the ‘2014 Spring Symposium of the Korean Social Security Association’ to take place in GIST (Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology, President ž Young Joon Kim) on May 16. He said “The concept of relative poverty will trigger a massive transformation of poverty alleviation policies in Korea. In order to use the ‘relative poverty’ concept as a tool of poverty reduction policies, social consensus should form on the definition of and measures to assess relative poverty, which should be a precondition to the implementation of the revised law.”

 

- Under the existing National Basic Livelihood Security Act which was legislated in 2000, beneficiaries and the amount of benefits are decided on the basis of minimum living expense drawn from the concept of absolute poverty. The government has recently developed a revised version of the law in order to reflect the concept of relative poverty, whereby beneficiaries and the amount of benefits will be decided based on a certain proportion to median household income.

 

l  The median household income is the income level in the middle of a list of ranked household incomes.

 

- Prof. Park said “The concept of relative poverty has more merits than absolute poverty as it enables a more accurate understanding of poverty and raises social interest in the resolution of the widening gap between the rich and the poor. However, there hasn’t been sufficient discussion on relative poverty in the academia nor preparation by the government for shifting from absolute to relative poverty as yet, and hence the revision of the law may result in serious confusion, just like opening Pandora’s Box.

 

- He said “Social consensus should be reached on the level of poverty and its measurement method for the soft landing of the relative poverty concept. The government as well as the academia should conduct meticulous reviews and research on it.”

 

□ Dr. Yoon Hee-sook (Korea Development Institute) is the second speaker at the symposium. She singles out ‘medical security’ as the area where the social policies of the government achieved the most successful outcome and stressed the necessity to address problems derived from the fast expansion of medical security.

 

- Dr. Yoon said “The problem with the present medical security system is that key decisions tend to be excessively swayed by political considerations since the basic institutional framework has yet to be firmly established, including the allocation of responsibility for decision making. This drawback will pose as a serious threat to the sustainability of the medical security system going forward. In addition, while the government has focused on the expansion of health insurance benefit and spending control, it seems to have somewhat lost sight of broader medical policies such as policy infrastructure and the direction of medical systems. 

 

- She said the modernization of medical security should be carried out in the way that the principles and standards of decision making should be established first and then the system should make a shift from ‘discretionary operation’ to ‘decision making based on principles’, thus expands the scope of medical policies.

 

□ The 2014 Spring Symposium of the Korean Social Security Association scheduled to take place in Oryong Hall of GIST on May 15~16. There, 14 experts will make presentations, including Prof. Park Neung-hoo who will speak about < Examination of social security in Korea and challenges >

 

- On May 16 (Fri.), presentations will be made on the main theme of the symposium < Examination of social security in Korea and challenges > , which will be followed by a special session on the subjects of △the level of social security spending in Korea and the outlook of its welfare regime △ the effectiveness of National Pension Fund. In addition, a free session will also take place where the speakers will make presentations about △ how parents’ stance on welfare affects the political inclination of their children △ industrial disaster insurance coverage for accidents which occur during commuting; experiences of major countries and implications .

 

 

- The symposium will be attended by more than 100 experts in the social security sector such as professors and researchers at state-run research institutes, and officials of the Ministry of Health and Welfare will also take part in the symposium to share their views.

 

□ The Korean Social Security Association (Chairman Kim Sang-ho/ professor of Division of Liberal Arts and Sciences in GIST College) is a representative academic society in the field of society security in Korea and celebrates the 30^th anniversary this year. It has contributed to the development of social security in Korea by publishing an academic journal and holding symposiums on after-retirement income assurance, health care, labor, poverty, welfare service and welfare administration to share research findings and suggest alternative policies.