• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.46
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• pp.178-209
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• 2001

This paper aims to provide a critical assesment of Conservatives's and new Labour's social assistance reforms in the U.K. and their differential impacts on low income groups. During the period of 18 years in power, the Conservative governments enforced benefit recipients being capable of work to be out of benefits and to get into work. They employed not only 'carrots' to encourage beneficiaries being capable of work to have full-time work, but also 'sticks' to discourage them to depend on benefits. The reforms under the Conservative governments were closer to the workfare model. The new Labour government has continued to emphasize work regarding social security reform. It has raised 'from welfare to work' as the main reform objective. However, it has not necessarily focused on 'carrots and sticks' in order to get beneficiaries into work. Instead, the new Labour government has put its priority regarding social assistance reform on human capital development in order to develop the capability of beneficiaries for work. Britain under the new Labour government seems to be moving from workfare to activation model. These differentials between the Conservative governments and the new Labour government regarding social assistance reforms bring about the different policy outcomes. Under the Conservative government, social assistance programmes were prone to strengthen the state's control over benefit recipients and to increase stigma to them. Punitive, demeaning, stigmatising programmes of work and unending job search activities harm the bases of self-respect. On the contrary, the activation programmes under the new Labour government has contributed positively to both socially significant participation and autonomy of beneficiaries.

• International Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.63-75
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• 2010

This study explicitly identifies the main values that rural welfare recipients reveal when they talk about their experiences with welfare and welfare reform. An inductive analysis of values is conducted using interview data from 49 current and former recipients of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) residing in the states of Massachusetts, Maryland, Minnesota, and New York. Seven main values that emerge from the data are self-esteem, autonomy, uniqueness, advancement, security, independence, and fairness. A conceptual diagram of these values is developed to illustrate how these values are related

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.53
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• pp.129-153
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• 2003

This study examines the socio-economic impacts of recent welfare reform in the United States. Based on the neo-conservative critique to the traditional public assistance system for low-income families, the 1996 welfare reform has given greater emphases on reducing welfare dependency and increasing work effort and self-sufficiency among welfare recipients. In particular, the welfare reform legislation instituted 60-month lifetime limits on cash assistance, expanded mandatory work requirements, and placed financial penalties for noncompliance. With the well-timed economic boom in the second half of the 1990s, the welfare reform seems to achieve considerable progress; welfare caseload has declined sharply to reach less than 50% of its 1994 peak, single mothers' labor force participation has increased substantially, and child poverty has decreased. In spite of these good signals, the welfare reform also has several potential problems. Many welfare leavers participate in the labor market, but not all (or most) of them. The economic well being of working welfare leavers did not increased significantly, because earnings increase was canceled out by parallel decrease in welfare benefits. Furthermore, most of working welfare leavers are employed in jobs with poor employment stability and low wages, making them highly vulnerable to frequent layoff, long-time joblessness, persistent poverty, and welfare recidivism. Another serious problem of the welfare reform is that a substantial number of welfare recipients are faced with extreme difficulties in finding jobs, because they have severe barriers to employment. The new welfare system with 5-year time limit can severely threaten the livelihoods of these people. The welfare reform presupposes that welfare recipients can achieve self-reliance by increasing their labor market activities. However, empirical evidences suggest that many people are unable to respond to the new, work-oriented welfare strategy. It may be a very difficult task to achieve both objectives of the welfare reform((1) providing adequate income security for low-income families and (2) promoting self-sufficiency) at the same time, because sometimes they are conflicting each other. With this in mind, a possible solution can be to distinguish welfare recipients into "(Very)-Hard-to-Employ" group and "(Relatively)-Ready-to-Work" group, based on elaborate examinations of a wide range of personal conditions. For the former group, the primary objective of welfare policies should be the first one(providing income security). For the "Ready-to-Work" group, follow-up services to promote job retention and advancement, as well as skill-training and job-search services, are very important. The U. S. experiences of the welfare reform provide some useful implications for newly developing Korean public assistance policies for the able-bodied low-income population.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.46
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• pp.60-88
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• 2001

This paper examined the impacts of the welfare reform program, California Work Pays Demonstration Program(CWPDP), implemented in 1992. CWPDP was designed to move welfare recipients into the labor market by reducing the amount of AFDC grants and one-third earned income disregard. The evaluation of the policy impacts on the welfare recipients was conducted in two areas: employment and earnings. This study used a subset of a database created by the California Department of Social Services, and University of California Data Archive and Technical Assistance. The subset is composed of 3,936 AFDC-FG cases selected in LA County: 1,311 control cases and 2,625 experimental cases. The control group was kept on the AFDC rules as of September 1992, while the experimental group was subject to AFDC rule changes implemented under CWPDP. The analyses of the employment and earnings using the random effects probit model and the random effects regression model, respectively, indicated that CWPDP did not effectively encourage female heads to participate in the labor market. It also revealed that CWPDP did not significantly increase the earnings of female heads. The findings imply that the disincentive structure of the public assistance program is not the main barrier preventing female heads from getting jobs and leaving the welfare rolls. Rather, participation in the labor market and exit from welfare is mainly determined by their own demographic characteristics and the economic cycle. Based on the findings, policy implications are suggested on the National Minimum Protection Program in Korea. Those include a flexible exemption rate for the earned income of beneficiaries, affordable child care services, and guaranteed public jobs.

• 한국사회복지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2000.04a
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• pp.89-111
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• 2000

Welfare-to-work으로 표현되는 근년의 미국 복지 환경의 급속한 변화는 공적 부문 사회복지인력의 역할 변화를 요구하고 있다. 강력한 민간 사회복지의 전통에 밀려 역할과 기능이 상대적으로 미약했던 미국의 공공복지부문은 지난 100여 년간 상당한 정체성 혼란을 겪어왔고 공공복지에서의 사회복지사의 역할과 기능은 해결되지 않는 논점이었다. 이 글에서는 뉴딜에서부터 미국사회복지의 일대 변혁이라고 일컬어지는 1996년의 복지개혁입법 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act 까지, 미국 공적부조(public assistance)의 변화와 이 부문 실천가들의 역할 변화에 주목하고자 한다. 신연방주의, 복지다원주의 등으로 대표되는 복지환경의 변화에 대해 공공부문 사회복지의 변혁과 발전방향, 그리고 미국 공공부문 사회복지사들의 정체성에 관한 고단한 탐색 작업은 국민기초생활보장법의 통과로 예상되는 우리나라 공공복지의 변화와 직업적 정체성 고민을 거듭하고 있는 공공복지 인력인 사회복지전문요원들의 역할에 대한 시사점들을 읽어내는데 도움이 될 것이다.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.48
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• pp.214-242
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• 2002

The purpose of this study is to predict the roles of public social workers and clarify their job. There were a few studies concerning them, and they suggested that it was needed to reform the delivery system or to supplement personnel. But they were almost normative. This study, based on the literature, analyzed public social workers' daily works to suggest their desirable roles. Generally the job of public social workers consists of two functions. One is income maintenance function, the other is social services function concerned with economically disadvantaged. The result showed that these functions were meshed up to now. Especially, It also showed that although they performed mostly eligibility work related public assistance and general practices, they wanted to perform professional practices. Took into account their working conditions, it seemed to be desirable to clarify their job. Thus, several suggestions based on these results are as follows: First, while eligibility functions are the central aspects of the public social worker's roles, it is needed for them to provide selected access services. Second, if they wanted to perform social services, it would be needed to restrict their roles for case manager and broker.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.56 no.1
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• pp.23-43
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• 2004

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the performance of New Deal under the New Labour government in Britain and examines the nature of New Deal with respect to workfare. The time difference of five years after the New Deal was put into effect shows that New Deal has contributed not only to include the socially excluded groups such as the young unemployed, the long-term unemployed, single parents, and the disabled into the labour market, but also to decrease the amount of income-based benefits providing for working generation. It can be said that the nature of New Deal under the New Labour is near to human capital development model rather than labour force attachment model. New Deal provides the opportunity of policy learning for the countries which pursue the reform of social security system to moving welfare beneficiaries being able to work into jobs. Policy learning can be summed up as follows. First, imposing mutual responsibility and obligations on unemployed person should be accompanied by implementing active labour market programmes of education and job training. Second, the delivery system which administrates workfare programmes should be decentralized in a local society. The cooperation between local government and enterprisers will be critical in implementing various employment programmes and moving unemployed person into jobs. Third, the case management for individual participating in workfare programme is necessary. The personal adviser should continue to provide employment services for the unemployed until he or she get a job and enter the state of self-reliance. Finally, the workfare programme should be firmly backed by the political leadership in order to overcome the oppositions of beneficiary groups under the existing social security system.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.41
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• pp.119-146
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• 2000

The goals and strategies of welfare-to-work (WTW) policies have been sources of contentious political debate. In the United States, despite 20 years of welfare reform, there remain important differences of opinion regarding how best to design and deliver WTW programs. The proliferation of state and local WTW experiments has led to the identification of two ideal-types of WTW programs: the Labor Force Attachment and Human Capital Development models. Most of the recent policy debate about WTW in America has focused on the relative merits and performance of LFA and HCD. While the Primary goal of the LFA model is for welfare recipients to achieve a rapid transition into work, the HCD model seeks to improve the long-term employability of welfare dependents through education and skill development. LFA policies tend to be strongly outcome-oriented and generally can yield quick results. Their "any job is a good job" philosophy has proved attractive to policy-makers who are anxious to see concrete results in a short-term period. In contrast, the HCD policies do not simply dump welfare dependents at the bottom of the labor market, but aim to secure relatively stable and well-paid jobs. However, these strengths are offset by several practical weaknesses including high unit costs and long-term investment in human capital. In recent years, LFA policies have been increasingly favored by both policy officials and politicians in the United States. The introduction of Temporaray Assistance to Needy Families of 1996 has been accelerating the trend. What is going to happen to welfare recipients? This simple shift to the LFA model, however, will only see an alarming increase of working poor in a near future.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare Studies
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.233-265
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• 2011

Material hardship measures have been used to supplement the traditional income-based poverty measures. Recently poverty researchers have increasingly used measure of material hardship to examine the well-being of low income families. Measuring the material hardship might be useful to a better understanding of the multi-dimensions of the poverty in Korea. Using the data of the Korea Welfare Panel Study(the fourth wave), I examine incidences of material hardship across quintiles of the income distributions and the factors that might affect the experience of material hardship among the poor families. Major findings are as follows. Descriptive results show that nearly one-fifth of all families had experienced at least one of the five material hardships in the year. Those in the bottom quintiles and the poor families are more likely to experience material hardship than the other quintiles and non-poor families. But, incidences of the material hardship in the middle income quintiles and low income families are not a few(18 percent and 37 percent). Logistic regression results show that family-consumption related variables, income other economic resources(asset and public assistance), and household's employment status affect the experience of material hardship among the poor families. But, material hardship among the poor families is not significantly related with family income. These results indicate that material hardship measures are the useful indicators to understanding the multi-dimensions of the poverty in Korea. And they suggest that an extensive reform of the public assistance policy is necessary to relieve the material hardships of the poor in Korea.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.195-196
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• 2018

The Korean Academy of Health Policy and Management (KAHPM) has shown remarkable achievements in the field of health policy and management in Korea for the last 30 years. The KAHPM consists of experts in various fields of health policy and management, and has been the leading academic discussion forum for health policy agendas of interest to the public. Health Policy and Management (HPM), the official journal of the KAHPM, published the first issue of volume 1 in October, 1991 and is publishing the second issue of volume 28 as of 2018. Currently, it is one of Korea' main journals in the field of health policy and management. HPM has published a special issue in commemoration of the 30th anniversary of the KAHPM. The HPM invited authors, including former presidents of the KAHPM and current board members, to write about main issues in health policy and management. Although the HPM tried to set up an invited author on all subjects in the health policy and management field, 19 papers are published, that completed the peer review process by August, 2018. The authors of the special issue of the 30th anniversary of the KAHPM include six former presidents, a senior professor, and 12 board members. The subjects of this issue are reform of the healthcare delivery system, health insurance and medical policy, reform of health system governance, the role of National Health Insurance Service (NHIS), the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs (KIHASA) and the National Evidence-based healthcare Collaborating Agency (NECA), ethical aspects of health policy change, regional disparities of healthcare, healthcare accreditation, new healthcare technology evaluation system, globalization of the healthcare industry, the epidemiological investigator system, the quarantine system, safety and disaster, and official development assistance. There are some remaining topics to deal with for the KAHPM: aged society, anti-smoking, non-infectious disease, suicide, healthcare resources, emergency medical care, out-of-pocket money, medical fee payment system, medical aid system, long-term care insurance, industrial accident compensation insurance, community-centered health welfare system, and central government and local government of health. The HPM will continue to publish review articles on the main topics in health policy and management. This is because the KAHPM, which has been the leading academic society of Korea's health policy and management for the last 30 years, feels responsible for continuing its mission for the next 30 years.