“I get paid while playing, but who works”… 10,000’unemployment benefit addicts’

“I have an acquaintance who works shortly as a contract worker and keeps getting unemployment benefits, but it’s not good to see it.
“I was troubled by the people who quit working because they filled the date to get unemployment benefits.”

In the main Internet community that office workers visit a lot, articles about’there are people in the vicinity who deliberately receive unemployment benefits over and over again’ come up. It is analyzed that there are not a few cases of finding short-term jobs for six months and then quitting them, taking job-seeking benefits and taking a rest, then finding short-term jobs and getting burned again and again as it has become difficult to find jobs recently.

The amount of unfair receipt of job search benefits. Graphic = Reporter Park Kyung-min [email protected]

According to data submitted by the Ministry of Employment and Labor to the Democratic Party’s office on the 30th, the amount of illegal job-seeking benefits caught between January and November of last year was 22.27 billion won (23,000 cases). Even though the amount of fraudulent supply and demand has not been counted last month, it has already surpassed the amount and number of receipts and receipts of the previous year. These include falsely reporting the reason for leaving a job in order to receive job-seeking benefits, or hiding the fact of employment and receiving job-seeking benefits.

Job-seeking benefits can be earned for four months if you lose your job regardless of your intention after working 180 days. The amount paid is at least 6120 won per day. It has increased 29.1% from 2017 (46,584 won), the first year of the current administration. Job-seeking benefit is an allowance paid by the government through the employment insurance fund to support job-seeking activities for unemployed people, and it accounts for most of the unemployment benefit and is commonly referred to as unemployment benefit.

The unjust supply and demand of job-seeking benefits reached a record high of 3,191 billion won in 2017, and then all fell to less than 20 billion won in 2018-19. In 2016 and 2017, the Ministry of Employment and the Audit and Inspection Service conducted special crackdowns on people living abroad and receiving job-seeking benefits illegally, resulting in a particularly high number of detections. Excluding those days, last year was the highest level of money leaked from illegal supply and demand last year. If it is added up to the December count, both the number of cases and the amount of detection can be increased.

Unlawful amount of job-seeking benefits per person. Graphic = Reporter Park Kyung-min [email protected]

In terms of the amount of illegal receipts per person, it was 960,000 won on average until November of last year. This is the highest amount since 2016 (1.05 million won). It is more than in 2017 (93 million won), when the amount of detection was the highest. An official from the Ministry of Employment explained, “The number of job-seeking benefits payments due to Corona 19 last year has been increasing, and the amount paid has increased, so the amount of fraudulent benefits has increased.”

There were still many people who repeatedly suffered from short-term employment and unemployment. Among the people who received job-seeking benefits from January to November last year, 14,000 people (66.63 billion won) received duplicates within one year. Accordingly, the number of recipients who received job-seeking benefits after reapplying within one year has reached 92,500 over the past five years, and the amount of unemployment benefits they received has exceeded 370 billion won.

In the past five years, 10,000 people (47.8 billion won) have repeatedly received job search benefits more than five times. It can be seen that it has repeatedly received short-term jobs → job search benefits every year for five years. They are called “unemployment benefit addicts”.

There are criticisms that there are cases of abuse of unemployment benefits because there are no restrictions on receiving unemployment benefits multiple times. This is the background of rising concerns about moral hazards such as “who works while getting paid while playing” in the community of major workers.

Although the leaking amount of job-seeking benefits is increasing, the employment insurance fund is virtually exhausted. In particular, the cumulative payment amount (11,850.7 billion won) reached an all-time high as the target and duration of job search benefits increased due to the cold wave of employment last year. Recently, the burden of the fund has increased since it has begun to pay job search allowances to freelancers and special-type employees (special high schools).

Applicants for unemployment benefits are waiting to receive related training at the Employment Welfare Plus Center in Jung-gu, Seoul. [뉴시스]

Experts urge that, in addition to grasping the actual status of unemployment benefit irregularities and recurring receipts, limiting the number of times and strengthening the demand and demand requirements should be considered. Jo Jun-mo, professor of economics at Sungkyunkwan University, pointed out that “unemployment benefits are operated by the labor insurance fund paid by the labor and management. If a few subscribers abuse this fund, the use of the fund may be restricted by others.”

Rep. Jun-Byeong Yoon said, “Amid increasing fears of depletion of the employment insurance fund, the burden is increasing as fraudulent supply and demand and unnecessary repetitive supply and demand are increasing.”

Sejong = Reporter Namjun Kim and Haeyong Son [email protected]