A Church group from Suwon Diocese in South Korea offers prayers for three members of a family who committed suicide last month due to their dire financial situation. (Photo: Suwon Diocese)
Church groups in South Korea have vowed to accelerate efforts to fill gaps in government schemes to support poor people after the suicide of a mother and two daughters sparked outrage across the country.
Officials from Seoul Archdiocese have committed to intervening to assist poor people after three members of the family committed suicide, Catholic Peace Broadcasting Corporation (CPBC) reported on Sept. 4.
The family committed suicide in their apartment in Suwon, Gyeonggi province on Aug. 21 allegedly due to their dire financial situation and poor health.
They committed suicide due to the worsening economic situation and a lack of government welfare funds. The mother in her sixties was suffering from cancer and her two daughters in their forties had rare incurable diseases
The mother had left a suicide note saying that “life was difficult due to chronic illness and debt.”
Lee Byung-wook, president of the Korean branch of the international Catholic voluntary organization, the Society of St. Vincent De Paul, stressed the need for active reporting and communication among parishioners to discover vulnerable people.
Incident is a fresh wakeup call to the nation's social welfare system"
“Most parishioners know who their neighbors in need are and where they live,” Lee told CPBC, adding that the community life must be one, “that continues to communicate and share like a family, rather than a formal and showy service.”
In many cases, economically vulnerable families were reported by local government officials or neighbors, Lee pointed out.
Father Kim Chang-hae, director of the Social Evangelization Bureau of Suwon Diocese lamented the deaths and vowed to take up countermeasures to reduce such incidents.
“The incident is very heartbreaking. I will think more about countermeasures from the perspective of pastoring to the poor,” Father Kim said.
Observers have termed the suicide case as “a clarion call” to the government to improve its “flawed social welfare system.”
“The incident is a fresh wakeup call to the nation's social welfare system following a similar suicide case of a poverty-stricken family in Songpa, southeastern Seoul, in 2014 when a mother and her two adult daughters living in a basement were found dead,” read the editorial by the Korea Times on Aug. 29.
"The system fails to identify the target persons in need"
“After the 2014 case, the government made strenuous efforts to reduce ‘blind spots’ in the welfare system, but some loopholes have resulted in the deaths of another family,” it added.
Government officials said the family of the three who committed suicide did not apply for welfare funds such as basic livelihood security program benefits.
The welfare system in South Korea requires those eligible for benefits to report their change of address which is not effective as families often shift residences due to eviction and financial pressures, media reports suggest.
Currently, about 240,000 people are living without fixed addresses due to debt problems or familial conflicts, the Korea Times reported.
South Korea’s Ministry of Health and Welfare says the government introduced a system that checks 34 utilities and public service bills against the addresses to understand those who are in need.
However, as many do not update their addresses on time, the system fails to identify the target persons in need.
"About 15 percent of about 51.6 million South Koreans live in poverty"
The government has passed laws and welfare schemes to assist the poor and marginalized in the country.
In 2000, a Basic Livelihood Security Program (BLSP) was launched to reduce the overall poverty level of Koreans which used an “all or nothing” assessment process to determine those below a uniform income threshold in need of assistance.
In 2015, the ministry introduced an amendment that defines different levels of income eligibility threshold for the following four categories: livelihood, health, housing, and education.
South Korea is a developed nation and the fourth largest economy in Asia. However, official estimates show about 15 percent of about 51.6 million South Koreans live in poverty.
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) reports that South Korea has the fourth-highest rate of relative poverty among 38 developed countries in the world.
In 2020, South Korea had the highest suicide rate, or 25.6 suicides per 100,000 people among the OECD countries.
