국민기초생활보장법의 발전방향에 관한 연구

Abstract

The ‘Poverty Problem’ is the worst of social problems in that it is not protected by the 1st income security policies of the minimum wage system or even the 2nd income security policies of social insurance and compensation. ‘Dignity and Value as a Human’ is the best constitutional idea which is secured by Article 10 of the Korean「Constitution」and the ultimate meaning of the Constitution lies in realization of a「National Basic Living Security Act」. Poverty is a serious barrier to the realization of 'Dignity and Value as Humans’ regardless of the cause. Therefore, the Constitution imposes a duty to protect the lives of people who are faced with poverty through securing a series of social basic rights focusing on a right for humane living including the principle of a welfare state for the realization of 'Dignity and Value as Humans’, and imposes the rights of the people to ask for security for a humane livelihood from the state. People who can not have humane livelihoods due to poverty need support from the whole community. In other words, people who do not have private support need public support. The act to provide this public support is called public aid. The 「National Basic Living Security Act」is “a basic act to overcome poverty” in that it has independent rules over the livelihoods of the poor. The「National Basic Living Security Act」was enacted with the purpose of securing a minimum livelihood for the people who are faced with poverty to correspond to mass unemployment and poverty according to the national financial crisis, or the ‘IMF Financial Crisis’, which occurred in 1997. The「National Basic Living Security Act」brought an innovative change in our public aid policy in that it improved the situation regarding the problems in the existing「Livelihood Protection Law」and emphasized the right of wages. The law provides diverse wages including living costs and medical insurance costs to protect the humane livelihoods of the people from poverty. The supply and demand requirements are composed of income standards and supporting duty standards. As the income standards have the problem of 'presumed income imposition' that the income exchange rate is fixed too high compared to the average market rate, it does not reflect real properly or have the legal grounds or trust rules, it is opposed to the Principle of Proportion, the Right of Equality and the principle of Law Reservation. As the supporting duty standard is composed of overly strict regulations that there shall not be even the potential possibility of private support, not the condition that private support does not exist or is lacking, it violates the 'Dignity and Value as Humans,’ a right for humane living, the Right of Equality, Security of Marriage and Family Livelihood, and Freedom of having Secrets in one's Private Life. The「National Basic Living Security Act」which was enacted in December 2014, introduced the concept of a relative poverty line and individualized wage levels and a selection criteria according to wages, it is a new basic living security system. The revised act mitigated the support duty standards a little, but it has limitations to improving existing problems. As developmental strategies of the「National Basic Living Security Act」based on the examination above, this study suggested the following; ①mitigation of political·financial subordination ② abolition of support obligation criteria and ③ an increase of beneficiary rights.