The Current Condition and Underlying Problems of Social Service in Korea

Social service, both in name and reality, was introduced in 2007 to make more jobs in Korea, along with its budget, workforce in this field increasing continuously. Despite its growth, social service in Korea has some concerning issues. One of them is that social service virtually caters only to the poor, and the other is the limited scope of social service to care services. In this paper two solutions are suggested. First, eliminating the income standard when selecting beneficiaries so that more people can have access to social service. It can invigorate the market of social service and encourage both provider and consumer to exchange their service and demand. It can also respond to increasing social needs, and create decent jobs. Second, operating the social service in the same way as social security system. It can be more realistic, considering political and financial aspects. This study has its limitations; that it considered only the two problems mentioned above. However, this study mainly covers rising social demands caused by economic depression, low birthrate, and the aging society.