The state provides various social services, including caring for the elderly and children, as well as public health care services to improve the quality of life of the people. In addition to guaranteeing income by providing cash benefits, the state also provides various social services to help maintain an appropriate level of quality of life, even in situations where personal relationships, including family members, are not available.
Korea's social welfare spending increased from 2.8% of GDP in 1990 to 11.8% in 2018, but this is still half the average of 29 OECD member countries. Considering the rapid arrival of the aged society, it is necessary to review the characteristics of the current social service delivery system and how it needs to be reorganized in order to operate effectively and efficiently in consideration of changes in population structure.
This study aims to discuss a plan for the reform of the social service delivery system in Korea along two dimensions. Above all, the study analyzed the social services by individual countries, which are representative examples of traditional welfare state typology, in terms of the combination of policy tools according to the type of government intervention, and used statistics to categorize major social services. Through this approach, this study attempted to understand what the level of policy intervention shows in common and different ways by type ofsocial service or welfare state in the process of operating a delivery system to effectively provide social services. Further, this study aimed to derive policy implications for how the current major social service delivery system in Korea should be rearranged considering changes in population structure and distribution of residence.
According to the analysis, it appears that the government has much direct involvement in terms of financing in establishing and operating major social service delivery systems in Korea, but actual service creation depends on the market. In addition, the analysis of the demand-supply gap for major social service delivery systems showed that as of 2020, 48.0% of the city and county districts had an appropriate level of social service delivery system. In terms of the accessibility of social service delivery systems to Seoul and the six major metropolitan cities, some regions need to establish additional social service delivery systems in consideration of geographical characteristics and residential development. On the other hand, based on the analysis of the demand-supply gap between cities and provinces considering changes in population structure, Gangwon, Jeonbuk, Jeonnam, and North Gyeongsang Province are expected to exceed demand, while Daegu, Incheon, Gyeonggi, Sejong and Jeju are expected to exceed supply.
This study is expected to prevent inefficiencies and policy failures caused by excessively market-dependent social service delivery systems, and contribute to a reform of the social service delivery system that reflects changes in population structure in the aged society.
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