Lee Nam-jae Preliminary Candidate "Need to Amend the Act on Activities for the Disabled and the Long-term Care Insurance Act for the Elderly"

"Measures to Exclude Severe Disabled Persons Aged 65 and Over from Disability Activity Support Services Will Be Prepared"

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters, Reporter Yoon Jamin] Lee Namjae, a preliminary candidate of the Democratic Party for the National Assembly election in Seo-gu (Eul), Gwangju Metropolitan City, stated, "I will strive to prepare measures, including revising related laws, so that severely disabled individuals who turn 65 years old can continue to receive activity support services."

Through a press release on the 17th, the candidate explained, "According to the current Disabled Activities Act, disabled individuals cannot receive activity support benefits once they turn 65, and thereafter, the Long-term Care Insurance Act for the Elderly applies, which reduces both the visiting care hours and the scope of support. Even disabled individuals can only receive visiting care support for up to 4 hours a day, just like non-disabled people."

He continued, "While disabled activity support helps with outings, the scope of visiting care under the Long-term Care Insurance Act for the Elderly is limited to daily household tasks. In particular, for severely disabled individuals who used to receive up to 22 hours of activity support services (such as activity assistance, visiting bathing, and visiting nursing) per day, the support hours drastically decrease simply because they are over 65 years old," he asserted.

He added, "The situation is even more serious for severely disabled individuals who cannot live without the help of activity instructors. If the current system's problems are not improved, severely disabled individuals who reach 65 will continue to be exposed to serious human rights violations, such as being unable to meet basic physiological needs and suffering damage to their health and right to life," emphasizing the issue.

The candidate stated, "For disabled individuals receiving disabled activity support benefits, related laws should be revised so that upon turning 65, they can choose between the Disabled Activity Support system and the Long-term Care Insurance for the Elderly for the services they need." He added, "I will revise the 'Act on Support for Disabled Activities' and the 'Long-term Care Insurance Act for the Elderly' to ensure that disabled individuals turning 65 do not face disadvantages in using disabled activity support services."