Local governments to hire 7,000 more welfare officials

SEOUL, July 13 (Yonhap) -- The government and the ruling party on Wednesday agreed to a 30 percent increase in the number welfare staff at local governments across South Korea by 2014 to ensure a smooth implementation of welfare policies, the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) said.
The ruling bloc, during a policy coordination meeting, decided to add 7,000 to the country's 22,461 welfare officials at local governments as of last year, Rim Chae-min, chief of the office, told reporters.
A total of 240 billion won (US$225 million) will be used to increase the number in steps by 2014, Rim said.
There has been mounting calls for changing the current system under which one social welfare official is charged with taking care of hundreds of people and cannot assess their individual situations well enough. The plan, if realized, will increase the average number of welfare officials to three at the smallest municipal unit, officials said.
The move comes as the Grand National Party seeks to implement a variety of welfare programs to woo voters ahead of next year's parliamentary and presidential elections.
As a measure to improve efficiency of the welfare programs, the government and the ruling party will seek to unite the country's two different welfare-related government computer networks, the office said.
The government said it also plans to limit certain types of welfare programs from offering overlapping benefits to people.
The welfare and home affairs ministries will soon work on concrete plans to carry out the agreement, the PMO said.