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Video Description

Type: KIHASA Policy Featurette

Topic: Why Personal Budgets Are Needed for People with Disabilities: Key Reasons

Guest Speaker: Lee Dong-seok, Professor, Daegu University

Transcript

Previously, in the welfare system, the government collected taxes and used them through experts. The government allocates budgets to these experts or the institutions they work for, and they provide services to people with disabilities after a certain assessment, with the result that some of those who need services and need them in large amounts have been excluded from the provision of the very services they need. This happens because the government demands efficiency from the professionals or institutions it funds. It has created a tendency among these professionals and institutions to consider it more desirable or efficient to provide services to as many persons with mild disabilities as possible, rather than to provide them to fewer persons with severe disabilities, given the same amount of budget. When the government creates welfare services based on this logic, it creates them to have economies of scale. For example, it wouldn’t create a welfare center for people with disabilities if only one or two such people needed it. However, some services may be needed by a small number of people with disabilities. The question of “How can we make sure they get those services?” led to the idea, “Let’s give them the power to purchase such services on their own.”