Single households falling into welfare dead zone
By Chung Hyun-chae
A man in his 60s was found dead on Mt. Gwanak in southern Seoul last week, a victim of “lonely death,” according to Gwanak Police, Monday.
The man surnamed Kim, 61, a daily wage earner, had been living alone.
According to his landlord, Kim had said he was sorry for failing to pay his rent for several months due to his financial difficulties.
Kim even left his last words for his landlord, saying, “I’m so sorry I could not pay the rent for four months. Please throw out my belongings.”
On Kim’s cell phone the police found next to his body, only four numbers were saved, which showed how lonely he had been.
The number of so-called “lonely deaths” has recently been increasing.
Given that many deaths are unregistered, the exact statistics are unknown.
The number of single-person households was tallied at 5.23 million in 2016.
A mother and her two daughters died together at their home in Songpa-gu, southeastern Seoul, in February 2014, after suffering from severe financial hardship, in what appears to be a murder-suicide.
In the wake of their deaths, there have been growing calls for a stronger safety net for the underprivileged.
According to National Tax Statistics released by Statistics Korea, the number of singles who received employment subsidies has tripled from 140,000 in 2014 to 420,000 in 2016.
Those who earn less than 13 million won per year are entitled to the employment subsidies.
The figure showed that many single households are economically desperate.
Those under the age of 65 have fallen into a welfare blind spot.
“We make efforts to grasp the number of old people over the age of 65 who live alone and try to provide them basic pensions,” an official at Gwanak-gu Office said.
“However, it is realistically difficult for us to visit them one by one to check if they are entitled to receive welfare.”
The office introduced a new program last July for officials so they could visit entire families in the district to check on them.
Many civic groups and social activists are also trying to give a sense of belonging to low-income single households.
“We have been running a program called the social family to help singles maintain closer relationships with other singles,” said Song Young-shin, head of Single Union of Korea, a civic group established in 2013 to prevent lonely deaths.