No.159 / Sep 5, 2022
In 1988, the disability rating system, which rated physical and mental disabilities from grades 1 to 6, was introduced. Because it rated an impaired individual purely based on medical criteria, it received a lot of criticism—critics said that the system produced welfare blind spots (some of the disabilities did not have all six grades—for example, language impairment was graded only 3 or 4); that it was “welfare service provider-centered”, and not “user-centered”; and that by using the term “rating”, it violated human rights. Therefore, with the revision of the Act on Welfare of Persons with Disabilities in 2019, it was decided to phase out the disability rating system by changing the expression “disability rating” to “the degree of disability” and simplifying it as severe (grades 1 to 3) and not severe (grades 4 to 6).
The degree of disability is examined when an impaired individual starts the process to register as a person with disability. The purpose of this registration is usually to avail welfare services. (In principle, if the impaired individual is a minor, the parents usually do the registration, but they are often reluctant to, worried about social stigma and disadvantages in employment, or because it is difficult to accept their child as person with disability. Also, in some cases, if an impaired individual thinks that the degree of his/her disability is not severe, he/she is reluctant to register because the disadvantages while signing up for insurance are likely to be more than the advantages of welfare services.) The process to register as a person with disability is as follows. First, the impaired individual must go to the community service center or the Government 24 website to apply and submit documents such as medical certificates confirming the diagnosis by a specialist at a specialized diagnostic institution. Then, the community service center requests the National Pension Service (NPS) to examine the degree of disability based on the documents received. Finally, after the NPS completes the disability assessment, a certificate (welfare card) for the impaired individual is issued at the community service center.
Welfare services for people with disabilities include transportation, telecommunication, electricity and city gas fee discounts, public parking and facility fee discounts, tax deduction, and medical assistance (revitalization service, medical device, health insurance cost discounts). In addition, the government provides a disability pension for people with severe disabilities, and a disability allowance for children with disabilities. The NPS provides another type of disability pension for those who develop disabilities after applying to the national pension for regular. At Ajou University, each semester, the Office for Students with Disabilities recruits students who can provide educational (writing) support and activity (moving) support.
During the revision of the Act on Welfare of Persons with Disabilities in 2019, the Comprehensive Survey for Providing Services (for daily living, movement, and employment assistance) was also introduced to determine the criteria for providing those services—when an impaired individual applies to the community service center, experts of NPS visit the applicants house and score the examination table. Several impaired individuals say that “It is uncomfortable to reveal the negligence for the examination score and it is not a “survey”, and just a budget-tailored.” Still, welfare services should focus on “the needs” of people with disabilities and grant a certain official authority to them.
By Noh Hyun-jin, AG Reporter
noh0605@ajou.ac.kr
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