[Reporter’s Notebook] MOGEF Welfare Budget Needs Reconsideration by Listening to Voices from the Field

Projects Abolished Due to Fraudulent Claims and Overlapping Programs
Significant Reduction and Integration of Domestic Violence Counseling Centers
Increased Budget Needed for On-Site Support for Youth and Women

"I am worried that issues like school violence and domestic violence will be pushed aside forever."

This was said on the 14th by a youth independence support counselor from a metropolitan city to a reporter after the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family's (MOGEF) budget cut plan for next year was revealed. MOGEF cut the youth policy budget by 17.3 billion KRW compared to this year. Budgets for youth rights protection projects, such as school violence prevention programs and resolving unfair treatment of working youth, were mainly slashed. Along with the youth budget, the budget for preventing violence against women was also cut by 14.2 billion KRW. This threatens to shrink domestic violence counseling centers and support projects for victims of sex trafficking.

MOGEF cited reasons such as fraudulent claims and overlapping projects for abolishing certain programs, but upon examining the details, there were several cases where large cuts were made even if they were not directly related to fraudulent claims. The budget related to youth independence support counselors is a representative example. The budget for "Youth Labor Condition Protection," which MOGEF reduced citing overlap with the Ministry of Employment and Labor, was also cut in the Ministry of Employment and Labor's budget plan for next year. As a result, the total budget for youth labor protection projects combined from MOGEF and the Ministry of Employment and Labor was halved compared to this year.

The success or failure of welfare policies for the vulnerable starts with meticulous budget planning. MOGEF officials explained that they reduced indirect support through private organizations and increased direct government support. However, due to next year's budget cuts, domestic violence victim counseling centers, which currently number 128 nationwide and face inevitable staff reductions, have seen a steady increase in counseling cases?from 390,000 in 2018 to 450,000 last year. This figure still indicates that many victims in the field need help.

Why did such a budget plan that leaves holes in the field come out? There is talk that the government's big framework for next year's budget is to cut subsidies related to private organizations, and MOGEF mechanically followed this by slashing budgets for welfare projects entrusted to private institutions.

Welfare policies for the vulnerable are not highly visible. Therefore, MOGEF's welfare budget must include the hidden voices from the field that are not outwardly apparent. Welfare policy is a field where budgets should not be drafted in a "top-down" manner, where government officials decide welfare priorities in their offices and set the total budget accordingly. The National Assembly is currently reviewing the government’s budget proposal. It is hoped that welfare projects scheduled to end next year will be reconsidered using a bottom-up approach.