Misappropriated unemployment allowance

It was revealed Wednesday that the unemployment allowance, which provides support and motivation to the jobless, has been misappropriated to 13,000 people who do not fit the criteria for unemployment benefits from 1998 through the first half of this year.

According to audit and inspection material submitted by the labor ministry to Grand National Party lawmaker Oh Se-Hoon of the National Assembly's Environment-Labor Committee, various regional labor offices have provided over 3.2 billion won out of the total executed unemployment allowance for 1999 of 936.1 billion won to 8,022 ineligible candidates. They also misappropriated a total of 5.5 billion won to 13,409 ineligible people from 1998 to the first half of this year. The regional labor offices are known to have distributed 1.4 billion and 84 million won to 3,199 ineligible people in 1998 and 726 million won out of the total executed 227.9 billion won during the first half of this year to 2,188 ineligible people.

Of the misappropriation cases for 1999, concealment of employment accounted for 6,735 (84.0%), false description for 350 (4.4%) and not filing income for 234 (2.9%). The rate of refunds received for misappropriation by the regional labor offices stood at 35.2% in 1998 and 68% in 1999.

In most cases, 50% of the average income earned prior to unemployment is given as an allowance to the unemployed and their family for 90 to 180 days according to employment insurance coverage.