By Kim Tae-gyu
For every $200 in its annual budget, the Korean government spends less than $1 in the child welfare segment, one of the lowest ratios among member nations of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
The Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs (KiHASA) said in its latest report that the country channeled 169.2 billion won into welfare programs for those aged between two and 12 in 2007.
The amount accounts for a mere 0.46 percent of the overall budget compared to other OECD members whose ratios were mostly over 2 percent. Few failed to top 1 percent.
``Some liberalistic economies could not make the 1-percent cut including the United States, Canada and Japan. However, even they surpassed 0.5 percent to be higher than Korea,’’ a KiHASA official said.
``The number of Korean children stands at more than 8 million, which means that the government sets aside merely 20,000 won for their benefits on average. The figure is simply too low, in my view.’’
The KiHASA said that the per-head yearly budget is less than a 10th of that for the disabled at 266,806 won.
Experts estimate that Korea’s child welfare expenditure-to-budget ratio would remain at rock bottom after 2007 as the incumbent Lee Myung-bak administration has by and large cut spending on welfare.
This raises criticism that the nation, with one of the lowest birthrates in the world, is coming up with two conflicting policies ― it encourages people to have more children while maintaining minimum financial support for them.
``One of the basic economic principles is that people tend to respond to incentives. In case the government strives to facilitate more child birth, it has to spend more in supporting children,’’ a Seoul analyst said.
``Otherwise, the nation will not be able to stop the trend of a decreasing number of babies here.’’
According to Statistics Korea, the average number of babies born during a Korean woman’s lifetime was just 1.22 last year. It represents a slight rise from the four-year low of 1.15 in 2009 but still is one of the lowest on the planet.
In contrast, the number of people aged 65 or older reached 10 percent of the overall population of 50 million in 2009 and is likely to double midway through the 2030s.
The result of the decreasing birth rate and increasing number of senior citizens is feared to weigh on the nation because less economically active people will have to prop up the inactive groups in the future.