KWDI Korean Women’s Development Institute

Gender Analysis of Policies for Stabilizing the Livelihood of the Disabled in the Community

 

Sun-Joo Cho
Young-Sook Kim
Youn-Sun Chang

 

As the number of disabled people has been steadily rising in Korea, the age and type of disabilities has become more diverse. To reflect this change, analyses that are based on factors such as gender, age, income, should be conducted, but there has not much research so far. Not only that, the overlap and fragmentation of policies for disabled women lowers the effectiveness and efficiency of these policies, thus requires further analysis. Therefore, this research paper explores the characteristics of the disabled in the community that make up a large proportion of the total disabled population and conducts a gender analysis of the policies designed for this population and search for ways to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of these policies.

We use a variety of research methods. First, we review the literature. By analyzing related laws, policies, programs, and data, we lay the groundwork. Secondly, we analyze the expenditure budget of related departments and the gender budget of related programs. Furthermore, we restructure the data from the survey of the state of the disabled in 2011 and 2014 to create a dataset of the disabled in the community over 18 years of age and analyze according to gender, age, and type of disability. Finally, we hold meetings of experts to find policy implications and verify the effectiveness of the research.

The total number of disabled people in Korea is on an upward trend, especially noticeable in the number of disabled women. Based on the analysis of the raw data from the survey of the state of the disabled in 2011 and 2014, the estimated number of disabled people over 18 years of age increased by 10,000 for men and 20,000 for women in 2014 compared to 2011, thus verifying that the number of the disabled in Korea is rising. In 2014, disabled men made up 57.5% of the total disabled population, which was more than the 42.5% of disabled women but the percentage of disabled women is rising markedly. However, there is a glaring lack of policies that reflect the distinct characteristics of disabled women and their demands and in addition, related programs.

This may be due largely to the fact that government policies have not been quick to follow the switch in paradigm from welfare support centered around benefits to support aiming for social integration. Another issue uncovered in the research is that the disabled themselves are not involved in the policy making and implementation process, and the policies are not fit for the circumstances of the region, thus the satisfaction levels with the policies are very low.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare oversees the policies for stabilizing the livelihood of the disabled in the community, the Ministry of Employment and Labor supervises issues related to the employment of the disabled, and the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family is in charge of issues pertaining to disabled women. Policies that support disabled women include disabled women housekeeping program, support for childbirth costs, and support for the education of disabled women, but according to the evaluation methods of the social welfare service delivery system (total of 8), these services are inadequate in terms of the principle of accessibility, principle of unification, principle of appropriateness, and the principle of durability.

The main policies for the disabled from 2011 to 2014 were centered around a total of eight programs: childcare?education program, support for medical treatment and rehabilitation, service support program, employment?loan support program, support program for public utility charges, program for tax benefits, and other programs. In 2014, while it is true that a new support system was created and financial support was expanded compared to 2011, a change in paradigm from welfare support centered around benefits to one of social integration has not occurred.

We conduct a matching analysis and a difference in differences analysis to analyze the effect of policies for stabilizing the livelihood of the disabled in the community. First, by conducting a matching analysis, we examine whether the 30% reduction in the long-term care insurance for the disabled in the first and second-degree who registered between 2011 and 2014 had an influence on the increase in percentage of disabled women. The results show that the extra costs of disability for women was higher than men by 17,200∼21,240 won in 2011, but seeing how 0 was included in the 95% confidence interval in 2014, there was a decrease in gap in extra costs of disability between men and women. Secondly, through a difference in differences analysis, we investigate whether the 30% reduction in the long-term care insurance for the disabled in the first and second-degree who registered between 2011 and 2014 led to the closing of the gap in the extra costs of disability between the disabled in the first and second-degree and those in the third-degree and under. As a result, the estimation of effects of the reduction in long-term care insurance for the disabled in the first and second-degree was ?0.14 (signifying approximately a 14% in reduction of costs), showing that it did influence the costs of disability.

In order to satisfy the diverse needs and demands of the steadily increasing disabled population, there is a need for customized support policies that consider gender and age. In particular, this research paper reveals that the current policies in place do not reflect the actual needs and requirements of disabled women by age. To improve policies for disabled women, it is vital to develop policies that minimize local and departmental variations. In its current state, local governments have divergent levels of awareness and execution methods. In most cases, policies of the departments for the disabled are sporadic. Thus, we need to keep track of related legislation and guidelines and integrate the delivery system. It is also necessary to advance beyond the existing descriptive statistical analysis of the state of the disabled to conduct an in-depth evaluation by considering the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, and utility of the policies. Through these efforts, we must design effective programs and policies that reflect the various needs and demands of disabled women. In addition, providing customized services depending on gender?age?region and improving the items in the survey of the state of the disabled are other suggestions. Currently, as the items in the survey of the state of the disabled and the programs that are supported by the relevant policies are different, no matching is occurring. Especially, even though all items related to women are applicable, the fact that survey items related to women are divided into separate categories of marital life and disabled women, is something to be fixed. Last, the analysis must be made more intensive than the current survey of the state of the disabled, which merely gives an overview of the current situation, by improving the access to the data and widely promoting this data.