Four Special Metropolitan Cities Urge Health and Welfare Ministry to Revise 'Basic Asset Amount' Announcement

[Suwon Ilbo=Reporter Jung Jun-sung] The mayors of four special metropolitan cities nationwide petitioned Health and Welfare Minister Kwon Deok-chul to "apply the basic asset amount standards for special metropolitan cities according to 'major city' criteria so that reverse discrimination does not occur in social welfare benefits."

Suwon Mayor Yeom Tae-young, Yongin Mayor Baek Kun-gi, and Changwon Mayor Heo Sung-moo met with Health and Welfare Minister Kwon Deok-chul on the 29th at a subcommittee meeting room of the National Assembly's Health and Welfare Committee and submitted a "petition urging revision of the basic asset amount announcement to improve unreasonable welfare recipient selection standards."

The meeting was attended by Kang Ki-yun, executive secretary of the Health and Welfare Committee (Changwon Sungsan-gu), and National Assembly Health and Welfare Committee member Jung Chun-suk (Yongin-byeong).

Mayor Yeom Tae-young stated, "Since taking office as mayor in the 5th democratically elected term in 2010, I have consistently requested that welfare recipient selection standards be improved so that citizens of cities with populations exceeding one million do not suffer disadvantages," and added, "This issue must be resolved when special metropolitan cities are launched in January of next year."

Health and Welfare Minister Kwon Deok-chul stated, "While I sympathize with the petition, this is a matter that requires agreement through research commissioned by the government," and noted, "We must discuss financial issues and other matters (related to the revision of standards)."

Cities with populations exceeding one million have socioeconomic scale and living standards similar to 'major cities' (Seoul and metropolitan cities), but when selecting welfare recipients, they are classified as 'small and medium cities' or special autonomous provinces, cities, and provinces, resulting in lower basic asset amounts being set compared to major cities.

The current system includes a "basic asset amount" that deducts property amounts by urban scale—69 million won for major cities, 42 million won for small and medium cities, and 35 million won for agricultural and fishing villages—when selecting beneficiaries of basic livelihood security.

Welfare recipient selection standards are classified into only three groups: 'major cities,' 'small and medium cities,' and 'agricultural and fishing area cities,' so Suwon City, with a population of 1.23 million, is included in small and medium cities rather than major cities. Despite having a population equivalent to a metropolitan city level, it is subject to the same standards applied to basic local governments with populations of 500,000 to 1 million.

Due to unreasonable welfare recipient selection standards, citizens of the four special metropolitan cities cannot receive welfare benefits under legal standards even if their property scale is similar to that of 'major city' citizens. Citizens are disadvantaged due to uniform standards that do not take into account urban scale.

Mayor Yeom Tae-young, demanding improvement in the standards for social security benefit recipients, requested, "Please revise the basic asset amount announcement at the earliest opportunity."