Ruling Party and Government Agree to New Policy Package for Low Income Families

The government and the ruling Uri Party agreed on July 21 to forgive overdue healthcare premiums for insolvent low-income families and to cover them with a medical aid program.

They said they would consider measures to provide electricity for minimum lighting and running water for basic living to low-income households whose services are suspended for non-payment.

The government will come up with detailed measures by August and enact them by September at the earliest.

The Uri Party and eight administrative department ministers and assistant ministers, including Deputy Minister of Education Ahn Byung-young, agreed at a policy meeting to an urgent aid program for families who live below the poverty line.

Under the program, the government and the ruling party will cancel overdue healthcare premiums and national pension contributions owed by the extremely poor families as shown in a poverty survey conducted by the Ministry of Health and Welfare.

In addition, they decided to stringently restrict the suspension of natural gas services for welfare recipients. The ruling party and the government are mulling a measure to provide rice for 40 percent below market value to 400,000 out of the 3.2 million people who form the second bottom below the poverty line.

They also plan to expand financial aid for the education of students from low-income families. They will offer students more part-time employment opportunities at government organizations. They also propose for local governments to assign 40 percent of their part-time positions to children from low-income families.

They will increase the unit price of meals at the free lunch program for about 55,000 poor children to 2,500 won from 2,000 won. They also plan to open a family crisis hotline (1668-1004)

“As of May of this year, electricity and running water were suspended at about 90,000 households. About 2.39 million and 1.63 million households are behind in paying national fund contributions and healthcare premiums respectively,” said Hong Jae-hyung, the director of the Uri Party’s policy committee. “We will fix the safety net for the poor to remove institutional blind spots.”

Hoon Lee dreamland@donga.com