• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
• /
• v.53
• /
• pp.129-153
• /
• 2003

This study examines the socio-economic impacts of recent welfare reform in the United States. Based on the neo-conservative critique to the traditional public assistance system for low-income families, the 1996 welfare reform has given greater emphases on reducing welfare dependency and increasing work effort and self-sufficiency among welfare recipients. In particular, the welfare reform legislation instituted 60-month lifetime limits on cash assistance, expanded mandatory work requirements, and placed financial penalties for noncompliance. With the well-timed economic boom in the second half of the 1990s, the welfare reform seems to achieve considerable progress; welfare caseload has declined sharply to reach less than 50% of its 1994 peak, single mothers' labor force participation has increased substantially, and child poverty has decreased. In spite of these good signals, the welfare reform also has several potential problems. Many welfare leavers participate in the labor market, but not all (or most) of them. The economic well being of working welfare leavers did not increased significantly, because earnings increase was canceled out by parallel decrease in welfare benefits. Furthermore, most of working welfare leavers are employed in jobs with poor employment stability and low wages, making them highly vulnerable to frequent layoff, long-time joblessness, persistent poverty, and welfare recidivism. Another serious problem of the welfare reform is that a substantial number of welfare recipients are faced with extreme difficulties in finding jobs, because they have severe barriers to employment. The new welfare system with 5-year time limit can severely threaten the livelihoods of these people. The welfare reform presupposes that welfare recipients can achieve self-reliance by increasing their labor market activities. However, empirical evidences suggest that many people are unable to respond to the new, work-oriented welfare strategy. It may be a very difficult task to achieve both objectives of the welfare reform((1) providing adequate income security for low-income families and (2) promoting self-sufficiency) at the same time, because sometimes they are conflicting each other. With this in mind, a possible solution can be to distinguish welfare recipients into "(Very)-Hard-to-Employ" group and "(Relatively)-Ready-to-Work" group, based on elaborate examinations of a wide range of personal conditions. For the former group, the primary objective of welfare policies should be the first one(providing income security). For the "Ready-to-Work" group, follow-up services to promote job retention and advancement, as well as skill-training and job-search services, are very important. The U. S. experiences of the welfare reform provide some useful implications for newly developing Korean public assistance policies for the able-bodied low-income population.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
• /
• v.62 no.3
• /
• pp.5-29
• /
• 2010

This study examines the welfare dynamics in Korea under the scheme of National Basic Livelihood Protection Program(NBLP). Data are drawn from Korean Welfare Panel study 2005~2007. Main findings are summarized as follows. First, the exit probabilities show a declining tendency with time on welfare increases. If the exit probabilities indeed decline over time, the earlier years on welfare deserve more interest in the policy perspective. Moreover, the vast majority of recipients are long-termers. Further efforts are needed to increase self-sufficiency through providing genuine opportunity and necessary support for recipients. Second, out-of-poverty exit and out-of-system exit are quite different in their properties. The results from the multivariate analysis confirm that the dropouts through out-of-system exit are virtually the same with those who remain on welfare. These results imply that the government should not resort to the negative policy proposals such as time limit and strengthening sanctions. Third, several explanatory variables have anticipated effect on welfare exit probabilities. Age, education, health, marital status, the presence of children, employment status have a certain level of impact on exit, with the only exception of gender. Since the identification of the determinants can facilitate sensible targeting on the potential leavers, these results have some implications on policy proposals.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
• /
• v.41
• /
• pp.119-146
• /
• 2000

The goals and strategies of welfare-to-work (WTW) policies have been sources of contentious political debate. In the United States, despite 20 years of welfare reform, there remain important differences of opinion regarding how best to design and deliver WTW programs. The proliferation of state and local WTW experiments has led to the identification of two ideal-types of WTW programs: the Labor Force Attachment and Human Capital Development models. Most of the recent policy debate about WTW in America has focused on the relative merits and performance of LFA and HCD. While the Primary goal of the LFA model is for welfare recipients to achieve a rapid transition into work, the HCD model seeks to improve the long-term employability of welfare dependents through education and skill development. LFA policies tend to be strongly outcome-oriented and generally can yield quick results. Their "any job is a good job" philosophy has proved attractive to policy-makers who are anxious to see concrete results in a short-term period. In contrast, the HCD policies do not simply dump welfare dependents at the bottom of the labor market, but aim to secure relatively stable and well-paid jobs. However, these strengths are offset by several practical weaknesses including high unit costs and long-term investment in human capital. In recent years, LFA policies have been increasingly favored by both policy officials and politicians in the United States. The introduction of Temporaray Assistance to Needy Families of 1996 has been accelerating the trend. What is going to happen to welfare recipients? This simple shift to the LFA model, however, will only see an alarming increase of working poor in a near future.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare Studies
• /
• v.47 no.4
• /
• pp.93-120
• /
• 2016

This study aims to elaborate differences of demand and supply in welfare service delivery upon regions. For this purpose, in-depth interviews were conducted with 15 welfare bureaucrats from Dong offices among largest and smallest portions of recipients in Seoul. The results indicated that there were significant differences in the proportion of welfare bureaucrats versus welfare recipients (11-450 households) of the National Basic Livelihood Guarantee System, the amount of available private sector resources, and the difficulty of providing visitation counseling upon regions. Research implications were discussed further to address regional disparities of welfare services.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
• /
• v.40 no.3
• /
• pp.1-44
• /
• 2018

This paper studies the macroeconomic effects of an enhancement in unemployment benefits in Korea. In particular, I quantify the welfare effect of two specific policy chances which have been mainly discussed among policymakers in recent years: increasing wage replacement rates by 10%p and extending maximum benefit durations by one month. To this end, I build and calibrate an overlapping generation model which reflects the heterogeneity of the unemployed and the specificity of the unemployment insurance (UI) system in Korea. The quantitative analysis conducted here shows that extending maximum benefit durations by one month improves social welfare, whereas increasing wage replacement rates by 10%p deteriorates social welfare. Extending maximum benefit durations is applied to potentially all the UI recipients, including unemployed workers whose wage before job loss is relatively low and whose marginal utility is relatively high. However, increasing wage replacement rates is applied to only a small number of UI recipients whose wage before job loss is relatively high, while the increase in the UI premium is passed onto all of the employed. This study suggests that given the current UI system and economic environment in Korea, it is more desirable to extend maximum benefit durations rather than to increase wage replacement rates in terms of social welfare.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
• /
• v.63 no.4
• /
• pp.83-107
• /
• 2011

This study examines the duration dependence in the exit rate from National Basic Livelihood Protection Program(NBLP). If the length of time on welfare is negatively correlated with the exit rate after controlling for 'unobserved heterogeneity', the observed declining exit rates would provide evidence of true duration dependence. Data are drawn from Korean Welfare Panel study 2005~2008. A variety of discrete-time hazard models are estimated, including parametric/nonparametric hazard model, gamma frailty hazard model/mass point technique model. It is found that welfare dynamics in Korea does not show strong evidence of duration dependence after controlling for unobserved heterogeneity. All the models estimated show that this finding is quite robust. The observed declining exit rate is largely due to differences in the unobservable characteristics of recipients. Thus, the detrimental effect of the welfare on the preference and attitude among recipients is not likely to be strengthened as time on welfare increases.

• Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
• /
• v.20 no.7
• /
• pp.121-127
• /
• 2015

This study is about establishing the policy direction according to the perception change of the welfare service of the aged. To achieve this goal, this study analyzed the reprocessed result of the survey related to the welfare of the aged among the second and third community social welfare plans of D county, Southern Jeolla Province. The result shows the recipients of the welfare service of the aged have higher perception about spreading the hardware side such as the welfare facility of the aged than about practicing the software policy such as elder care services. It suggests significant implication in deciding the priority of the welfare policy of the aged from now on. But this result is confined in D county, so getting the generalized conclusion needs the comprehensive review toward more broad regions hereafter.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Industry Convergence
• /
• v.25 no.6_3
• /
• pp.1261-1273
• /
• 2022

Homeownership is much more than a financial calculation. It is a socio-psychological phenomenon. During the last decade studies of homeownership have demonstrated a positive link between homeownership and positive social outcomes including welfare perceptions and attitudes. This study compared welfare perceptions between homeowners and renters in Korean Welfare Panel Survey using data collected in 2019. The study analyzed six continuous outcomes of welfare perceptions. Six variables indicating welfare perceptions included: (1) welfare and work disincentives; (2) welfare recipients are lazy; (3) welfare selectivism; (4) national minimum; (5) free university education and; (6) free child care and kindergarten. This study acknowledged bias arising from selection on observables. To control these biases, this study employed analytical approaches including the treatment effect model. Results of this study confirmed that attainment of homeownership is not possible for everyone. Findings from this study have provided some evidence that homeowners and renters have different perceptions on welfare listed above. Finally, issues relating to homeownership and welfare perceptions were discussed. Implications for social work practice and research were further discussed.

• Journal of Family Resource Management and Policy Review
• /
• v.9 no.1
• /
• pp.75-93
• /
• 2005

It was quite an achievement to actualize family welfare, announcing' Healthy Family Basic Acts(2004)', which enabled to pursue comprehensive welfare policy including family life as a unit. This has enhanced family function, converting into consolidated family-centered service system, creating a new paradigm. The family life education must be spreaded and activated in the way of family welfare service, as to improve the quality of life, while reducing social problems regarding to the boundary of family. So This study aims at investigating the level of aspiration out from the family life education and the fact-revealing of training program within the family life. To examine these matters, 356 married women living in Seoul were selected. The results are as follows family life education and the training program each other showed little relevance that merely $45{\%}$ attended the program. Life planning program for Elderly was mostly asked in the research of the degree of family life education program. Besides, many of them demanded for the family care program for those who have divorced, remarried or adopted the child, showing their active will to solve them which have been dealt quite privately. Family life education is dealing with the current problem solving and future life planning. In this regard, it is strongly needed to experience and learn the dynamics of family life for lifetimes. Systemic family life education must be accomplished to solve, prevent and to cope with family problems.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
• /
• v.46
• /
• pp.178-209
• /
• 2001

This paper aims to provide a critical assesment of Conservatives's and new Labour's social assistance reforms in the U.K. and their differential impacts on low income groups. During the period of 18 years in power, the Conservative governments enforced benefit recipients being capable of work to be out of benefits and to get into work. They employed not only 'carrots' to encourage beneficiaries being capable of work to have full-time work, but also 'sticks' to discourage them to depend on benefits. The reforms under the Conservative governments were closer to the workfare model. The new Labour government has continued to emphasize work regarding social security reform. It has raised 'from welfare to work' as the main reform objective. However, it has not necessarily focused on 'carrots and sticks' in order to get beneficiaries into work. Instead, the new Labour government has put its priority regarding social assistance reform on human capital development in order to develop the capability of beneficiaries for work. Britain under the new Labour government seems to be moving from workfare to activation model. These differentials between the Conservative governments and the new Labour government regarding social assistance reforms bring about the different policy outcomes. Under the Conservative government, social assistance programmes were prone to strengthen the state's control over benefit recipients and to increase stigma to them. Punitive, demeaning, stigmatising programmes of work and unending job search activities harm the bases of self-respect. On the contrary, the activation programmes under the new Labour government has contributed positively to both socially significant participation and autonomy of beneficiaries.