Care Worker Support Fund Execution at 0.1%... Only Half of the 3rd Disaster Relief Fund Executed

Budget Policy Office of the National Assembly's '2021 First Supplementary Budget Analysis' on the 9th
3rd Disaster Relief Fund Actual Execution Rate Only 57.0%

[Asia Economy Reporter Jang Sehee] The execution performance of the third disaster relief fund prepared by the government in response to COVID-19 has been revealed to be poor. The overall scale is about half, and the execution rate for the support fund project for visiting and care workers was only 0.1%.

According to the "2021 First Supplementary Budget (Supplementary Budget) Analysis" prepared by the National Assembly Budget Office on the 9th, the actual execution amount was 5.249378 trillion KRW, which is about 57.0% of the total.

In particular, projects such as the temporary support fund for visiting and care workers, reinforcement of local medical center functions, diagnostic test fees, employment retention support fund, and the national employment support system had actual execution rates below 20%, showing very poor performance.

As of February 15, the visiting and care service worker livelihood support fund, a project to provide 500,000 KRW to 90,000 visiting and care service workers, had an execution rate of only 0.1%. Although 46 billion KRW was allocated, only 39 million KRW was executed. Regarding this, the Ministry of Employment and Labor explained, "The execution was delayed because it took some time to secure related agencies' databases (DB) to verify employment and income conditions."

The "Employment Retention Support Fund" project, which supports part of the labor costs when employers implement employment retention measures, also executed only 163.721 billion KRW out of a total of 913.22 billion KRW, resulting in an actual execution rate of just 17.9%. The Ministry of Employment and Labor stated, "Due to a time lag of about two months between planning and payment procedures, an increase in support funds is expected from March."

In response, the Budget Office explained, "Considering that it takes considerable time to secure databases from related ministries, it is necessary to request cooperation for DB from related ministries such as the Ministry of Health and Welfare, Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, and National Tax Service to ensure prompt verification."