1. Reason for Revision
The Act on the Use of Social Services and the Management of Vouchers has been revised (Law No. 19894; promulgated on January 2, 2024; enforced on January 3, 2025) to prohibit certain acts on the part of users of social service vouchers, such as assault, injury, or sexual harassment of social service providers; to suspend or restrict the use of social service vouchers in cases where users commit any of the prohibited acts, etc.; to request criminal background checks from the heads of police stations during the hiring of service personnel; to collect interest in addition to the amount of payments from service providers or users who have helped to receive or have received social service benefits using fraudulent or unlawful means; to stipulate the matters regarding revocation or suspension of the qualifications of service providers; and to enable publication of the details of violations committed by providers in certain cases where an administrative disposition is finalized for such providers. The proposed revision provides the matters delegated by the Act and the matters necessary for its enforcement, including the procedure for conducting criminal background checks, the rate of interest to be imposed on unjust enrichment, the methods and procedures for publishing violations, the standards, methods, and procedures for paying compensation; and it also aims to improve and supplement the matters necessary for the efficient operation and management of social service rights, such as matters related to the entrustment of investigations of cases of unjust enrichment.
2. Main Contents
a. The revision sets forth the procedure for requesting criminal background checks by police stations when providers recruit new personnel (Newly established Article 2-3 of the draft)
b. The revision specifies the amount of interest to be collected in addition to illegal or fraudulent payments made by providers and/or their employees, or payments made to users (Newly established Article 4 (3) of the draft).
c. The revision provides the method of and procedure for publicizing an offense when a provider is subjected to an administrative penalty for making a fraudulent payment (Newly established Article 6-2 of the draft).
d. The revision provides provisions for entrusting the payment of rewards for reporting illegal or fraudulent payment or receipt of social service vouchers to the related specialized organizations, etc., and for allowing the Minister of Health and Welfare to publicize the upper limit of the amount of such rewards (Newly established Article 7 and Article 8-2 (4) of the draft).
