Key NHRCK Activities
2. Key Policy Recommendations6)
A. Emergency Recommendation Regarding Home Care Assistance
Program for Handicapped Persons 65 Years or Older
The home care assistance program for the disabled is a state program designed to help disabled
persons who live or work on their own with all types of day-to-day activities. It is a major welfare
program with a budget of 1.5 trillion won for 2021. The program, the services of which are
available anytime of the day, is only available for disabled persons below 65 years of age. Those
who are 65 years or older are placed under the elderly long-term care program, the service of
which is reduced to three to four hours a day. This situation has caused serious challenges for
Part 2
persons with limited mobility, with serious risks posed not just on their health but also on their life.
The Commission had continuously made recommendations and expressed opinion on this
general directions for resolution. It recommended the heads of 17 local governments to develop
new services to assist severely handicapped persons 65 years or older with their minimum daily
activities, without legislative amendment.
Because local governments are not in a position to fundamentally resolve this issue and severely
handicapped persons 65 years or older will remain exposed to the same risks unless the existing
legal shortcoming is addressed, the Commission made recommendations to the Ministry of Health
and Welfare, Social Security Committee, and Ministry of the Interior and Safety to revise the
relevant laws and find ways to provide assistance.
Almost every organization involved accepted the recommendations, and thanks to an active
effort by the National Assembly, a partial revision to the Act on Activity Assistant Services for
Persons with Disabilities was passed in December. When the revised law, which significantly
captures the recommendations by the Commission, comes into effect on January 1, 2021, the
limitation placed on the home care assistance program based on age will become ineffective.
6) See Annex for list of policy recommendations.
43
Key NHRCK
Activities
issue. On February 20, it presented an emergency policy recommendation that lays out some