Session 2 : Policy Evaluation for Welfare Policy
SPEAKERS
ㅇTimothy Smeeding(Distinguished Professor at University of Wisconsin)
<“Learning about Anti-Poverty Policy and its Effectiveness using Cross National Data and Analyses”>.
▸Proposed a plan to alleviate elderly poverty at a lower cost than the basic pension increase
▸Home equity loans and implementing a long-term care services access system are essential
▸Introducing a universal monthly child allowance for low-income families could encourage young Koreans to have children
ㅇKyung-zoon Hong (Professor, Sungkyunkwan University)
(Co-author: Seok-cheol Ha, Research Fellow, Seoul Welfare Foundation)
<“Evaluation Research on Income Security Policy of South Korea: Past and Present”>
▸Evaluation of the introduction/expansion of the Korean social welfare system is very important
▸The policy evaluation of the Seoul Security Income Pilot Project was designed prospectively to evaluate the effectiveness of the project.
DISCUSSION HIGHLIGHTS
Chair: Hyung-pyo Moon (Former Minister of Health and Welfare)
Discussant:
Jae-jin Yang (Professor of Yonsei University / President of the Social Security Society)
Min-soo Park (Second Vice Minister of Health and Welfare)
ㅇMin-soo Park (Second Vice Minister of Health and Welfare)
-The government of President Yoon emphasizes the need for policies to have a more scientific and objective basis.
– The Yoon administration’s welfare strategy is threefold.
The first is to prioritize the use of limited financial resources to solve social problems.
The second is to upgrade social services, which are not only needed by the vulnerable, but also by the middle class and above. In other words, social service upgrading means expanding the coverage of social services that are universally needed by most people. The degree of self-payment for social services is determined according to the ability to pay. However, it should be a system where the government manages the supply system and quality of services.
The third is welfare reform, which involves simplifying a number of welfare programs while focusing on the more vulnerable. These are the three streams of the Yoon administration’s welfare strategy.
– When providing various types of insurance premiums or benefits, it is important to have a system that can accurately identify the concept and content of income through data.
– It is also important to improve the supply system to make it healthy and robust as benefits are expanded.
– It is necessary to revitalize programs that use housing as an asset to generate cash flow according to the characteristics of Korea.
– The government, including the Ministry of Welfare, is also making efforts to revitalize data-driven policies. Recently, the ministry has been establishing social security administrative data as a fundamental infrastructure for evidence-based policy making.
ㅇJae-jin Yang (Professor of Yonsei University / President of the Social Security Society)
– The situation of the current generation of seniors and future seniors will be different. Currently, the elderly has fewer opportunities to join the national pension and shorter enrollment periods, so the current generation of elderly is bound to have lower incomes. In that sense, when the current generation of 4-50 year olds becomes elderly, the situation will be much better than now.
– It should be paid to the elderly who do not have a national pension or whose income is lower than the national pension. However, with each passing presidential and general election, the number of eligible people increases above the poverty line. This makes it challenging to raise the amount, resulting in a relatively low basic pension. Currently, 70% of the elderly receive a basic pension of 300,000 Korean won. To address this issue, like Sweden or other countries, for example, if we have a poverty line of 40%, we need to make it a basic pension that targets 40% instead of 70%, and raise the amount. We need to make a more selective or targeted pension for low-income elderly people who cannot fully accommodate retirement or national pensions.
– When it comes to a child poverty, the Yoon administration has introduced a parental benefit of 1 million won per month for children aged 0 and 500,000 won per month for children aged 1. We should also revisit Child and family allowances, extending them until the age of 16, similar to Western European countries, covering ages such as 2, 3, and 5 years old.
<PERI, Policy Evaluation Research Institute>
