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A rental apartment in Gimpo, Gyeonggi Province, where the current resident is several months behind on rent and in health insurance payments. Social workers left behind a note on the door notifying the resident of potential welfare benefits on Jan. 15.

The doorbell rang, but there was no response.

On the morning of Jan. 15, Park Eun-gyeong, a public servant assigned to the Yangchon Township Administrative Welfare Center, and Wi Se-ah, a social worker, were standing in front of an apartment in Gimpo, Gyeonggi Province. The tenant, only identified as “K,” was several months behind on rent and national health insurance payments.

Recently, there have been a spate of tragic incidents entire families committing suicide. Park and Wi’s visit to the house was part of a fact-finding survey aimed at identifying families in danger and stopping them from making such a drastic choice. K hadn’t responded to a number of phone calls. But in the end, the social workers had to turn back, after leaving a notice on K’s door.

K had been flagged as being potentially at risk in the government’s Social Security Information System because of overdue social insurance payments, among other reasons. For about two hours on Wednesday morning, the social workers visited the houses of 13 families who, like K, weren’t answering the phone. They had to leave a notice at eight of those houses, after no one came to the door.

When someone did come to the door, they seemed wary. At one house, which records indicated as being behind on national pension payments and rent, a tenant said, “We’re fine, and nothing’s wrong,” before shutting the door. One older woman, in her 70s, seemed skeptical that she could receive government assistance considering that her children were alive.

An elderly South Korean tapes heat packs to the bottom of his socks because his legs swell and go numb during the winter.

Need to greatly expand eligibility for welfare

“Quite a few people assume they’re ineligible for government assistance if they have family members who could support them and don’t even come in for a consultation. If someone lets us know about their situation, we’ll look up the welfare service that’s best suited for their household,” said Park, the public servant.

Some struggling households aren’t flagged by the government’s system, such as “N,” a 77-year-old who was visited by social workers on Jan. 14, after a community leader reported that an elderly individual, living alone, was having trouble getting by. N has long dealt with a chronic illness, and the house was littered with medicine wrappers. He’d put heat packs in the bottom of his socks, because his legs swell and go numb in the cold weather.

“When you subtract my 130,000 won [US$112.10] in monthly rent, 100,000 won [US$86.23] in maintenance fees, and 100,000 won for gas and other bills, I don’t even have enough money left to buy any side dishes. My son is covering my copay for the adult daycare center and home visits. My children are having a hard time, too, so I can’t ask them for more help. They stopped sending my old allowance. I feel so guilty I don’t even call them. I’m just hanging on, day after day, because I haven’t died yet. What’s the point of going on like this, when I have to swallow 13 pills at a time?” N let out a long sigh. He supports himself on the 400,000 won (US$344.91) he gets each month from the basic pension and national pension programs.

“We need to greatly expand eligibility for welfare, which would include relaxing the limitations on applicants partially supported by family members. There are some people who genuinely need help but are being left at risk because of institutional restrictions,” said Heo Yun, head of the customized welfare team.

On Jan. 5, Gyeonggi Province launched a survey of people not living in public housing, people who have slipped through the cracks of the government’s system for identifying at-risk households, such as the Gimpo family that recently committed suicide. In a survey of 51 of 167 private-sector apartments in Gimpo, the city determined that 267 households were behind on their maintenance fees.

An elderly South Korean man in his 70s has to take piles of medication for a respiratory ailment.

Private-sector apartments are only able to collect information on maintenance fee payments with the consent of tenant representatives and the maintenance office, and only 51 of those apartments provided that consent. Private-sector apartments are apparently reluctant to provide such information to local governments out of concern for personal information leaks.

“For now, we’ll be making phone calls and paying visits to the 267 households we’ve identified in order to figure out what they’re dealing with, while also working to persuade the other private-sector apartment complexes to give their consent,” said a Gimpo city official.

The measures that are periodically taken to close the gaps in welfare coverage are also putting a heavier burden on the government workers charged with carrying them out. Last year, 1,500 households were identified as being at-risk in six rounds of such notifications in Yangchon Township. This basically meant that three social workers and one private-sector caseworker were on the hook for visiting 370 households each.

“We’re so shorthanded that we’ve had to enlist volunteer organizations and the local social security board. We don’t have enough workers on the ground to handle consultations, write reports, and manage cases,” complained Heo.

By Lee Jung-ha, Incheon correspondent

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