More than 2,500 applications for basic livelihood benefits, including living and medical assistance, were not processed within the period set by law over the past three years. In some regions, applicants waited more than five months from filing to a decision and notification.
Rep. So Byung-hoon of the Democratic Party of Korea, a member of the National Assembly's Health and Welfare Committee, said on the 24th that an analysis of joint government audit data from 2023 to 2025 found at least 2,532 cases in which rulings on basic livelihood benefits were made after the statutory deadline. The cases were found in 10 of the 11 metropolitan cities and provinces covered by the audits.
Gyeonggi Province accounted for about half of the total with 1,247 cases, followed by South Gyeongsang Province with 431, North Gyeongsang Province with 281, South Chungcheong Province with 161 and Daejeon with 149.
Under the National Basic Living Security Act, mayors and county and district heads must decide without delay whether to grant benefits, and on what terms, once they complete their review of an applicant. As a rule, applicants must be notified of the outcome within 30 days of filing, and the period can be extended to a maximum of 60 days only when there are special circumstances.
In Gyeonggi Province, however, auditors found a case in which it took 162 days from application to decision and notification. Disciplinary action was requested against the officials involved after the audit found that delayed cases were concentrated among a small number of caseworkers.
The tally covers only the regions subject to joint government audits and only the cases identified during those audit periods. Taking into account regions left out of the audits, the number of applications nationwide that exceeded the statutory processing period may be higher.
That has prompted calls for the government to use the social security information system to track application dates, the status of reviews and decision dates at local governments across the country, and to systematically manage applications that pass the legal deadline.
So said delays in benefit rulings directly affect people's livelihoods and medical treatment, urging that "the Ministry of Health and Welfare should conduct a full review of how often local governments nationwide exceed the statutory deadline, and why."
