[Opinion] Harmonious Expansion of Social Security Systems between Central and Local Governments

Sung-il Yang, 1st Vice Minister of Health and Welfare

The national government and local governments implement various social security systems to protect citizens from social risks such as childbirth, childcare, unemployment, aging, disability, illness, poverty, and death, and to improve their quality of life. The diverse social security systems of the national and local governments must ensure overall national coherence to operate efficiently. To this end, since 2013, when central administrative agencies and heads of local governments establish or change social security systems, they are required to consult with the Minister of Health and Welfare.

Under the current administration, the Ministry of Health and Welfare guarantees local government autonomy while ensuring that resource concentration and omissions do not occur at the national level. For newly established or changed social security systems, central ministries provide prior consulting under the principle of "support and balance," and local governments under the principle of "autonomy and responsibility," operating a rational consultation and coordination system so that social security systems can change the lives of citizens and local residents.

Starting with the "Childbirth Support Payment Project" in Saha-gu, Busan in 2013, a total of about 6,300 large and small social security projects have gone through the consultation and coordination system. Currently, 357 social security projects by central ministries and 3,541 by local governments are underway. Over the past three years, the social security projects consulted on have been predominantly for young and middle-aged adults (38.4%) and employment/unemployment support projects (29.0%), reflecting that job support policies for young and middle-aged adults have become urgent projects, taking precedence over childbirth, childcare, income, and poverty support policies.

Among the total 1,089 newly established or changed social security projects applied for consultation in 2020, local government projects accounted for 93.4%. Noteworthy examples include Gyeonggi-do’s "Platform Worker Industrial Accident Insurance Support Project" and Seoul’s "Seoul-type Paid Sick Leave Support Project." Gyeonggi-do’s "Platform Worker Industrial Accident Insurance Support Project" supports the personal contribution of industrial accident insurance premiums for special-type workers such as delivery workers and quick service couriers. This project was promoted to address the expansion of non-face-to-face services triggered by COVID-19, the increase in platform labor, and the unstable working environment of platform workers. It is an excellent case where similar projects are being prepared by other local governments following consultation.

Seoul’s "Seoul-type Paid Sick Leave Support Project" provides a living wage (85,610 KRW/day) for up to 14 days during hospitalization treatment to small-scale self-employed individuals who cannot take leave due to illness because of livelihood maintenance. Given that discussions on sickness benefits have recently begun at the Ministry of Health and Welfare, this project requires continuous attention and monitoring to ensure organic linkage between central ministries and local governments’ social security systems. Going forward, the Ministry of Health and Welfare plans to actively promote outstanding cases among newly consulted projects to spread them nationwide.

Meanwhile, there are still cases where projects proceed without consultation or consultation applications are delayed due to a lack of understanding of the consultation and coordination system. Additionally, the rapid increase in social security projects has led to longer periods required to complete consultations, posing challenges. Adhering to the consultation application deadline of April 30, as stipulated in the Framework Act on Social Security, is important for substantive consultation.

The expansion of social security projects to build a lifelong social safety net will continue, and demands for the establishment and modification of social security projects that align with social changes and the times, such as COVID-19 and the increase in platform workers, will steadily increase.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare will strengthen consultation compliance by excluding local governments that fail to consult from participating in central government public projects, and will strive to improve the effectiveness of consultations by providing consulting and conducting consultation procedures through the next-generation social security information system. Everyone’s attention is needed so that the consultation and coordination system can contribute to maintaining the overall coherence of national social security projects and the spread of new and excellent social security projects.