The House of Councilors debates on a draft budget for Fiscal 2018, in which a policy to reduce welfare payment is included: a 1.5% decrease on the average to recipients of the Life Protection Service benefits, and the maximum is 5%. The shrink, consequently, totals 21.3 billion Yen, which represents expenditure of the state’s government of 16 billion Yen on the annual basis and that of local governments.

POVERTY ISSUE IS NOT SOMEBODY ELSE’S PROBLEM

The qualification standard for the Life Protection Service is reviewed every five years. The Committee on Life Protection Standard of the Social Welfare Council, Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, has discussed the theme since the spring season in 2017.

A report was released by the ministry December 14 last year in which the council pointed out a fact that the current standard exceeds the protection level by 13.7% in the maximum for a case of a household of parents with two children in the urban areas.

Target of 60% of Average People should be maintained

Several organizations advocating welfare beneficiaries protested the announcement, and the government was, as a result, obliged to cut the budget by 5% in the maximum.

It is important to point out here a verification method worked out by the committee. In the circumstances where only about 20% of applicants for welfare service are certified as recipients, the qualification standard should rely on a level of consumption activities of those people in the minimum income strata (below the poverty line) including the recipient families of life protection service.

A committee member Iwata Masami (Professor, Japan Women’s University) told: ‘the protection norm is set originally on the basis of the average consumption level of Japanese people, which used to be 60%. It is necessary to review the current way of verification’. The report, however, does not reflect her advice. It is imperative to set out a contemporary, realistic criterion which represents a minimally healthy and cultural level of livelihood.

Reductions Continue Swiftly

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) began bashing, targeting the welfare system, in the days when the Democratic Party was the government, and immediately after the LDP’s Abe government regained the state’s power, it brought down the norms of eligibility.

The livelihood assistance benefits decreased by 7.3% on the average in three occasions from 2013 August to 2015 April, the housing benefits were rearranged in 2015 July, and the additional winter season benefits were suspended partially in 2015 November.

The livelihood assistance for the elderly (older than 70 years of age) decreases by \22,950 from \93,850 to \70,900 (24.5%) for a household of a single person in the current review, if the additional payment for the elderly, which had been abolished during the Koizumi government days, is added to. A household of parents and two children will receive \196,010 monthly, a decrease by \24,040 from \220,050 (10.9%).

The number of welfare recipient families counts approximately 1.64 million, covering 2.12 million people as of the end of December last year (announced March 7, 2018). The elderly households count about 870 thousand of them, which increases steadily. Many of the senior citizens have a low level pension payment, or, do not have any pensions. They apply for welfare as they cannot continue working, the number of which increases but never decreases.

Victims of War and Social Inequality

Welfare has been criticized by fingering to a small number of illicit recipients. However, ‘dishonest beneficiaries’ do constitute about 0.5%, not occupying large portion (which includes cases caused by omission of duty on the side of case workers).

The writer of this article has worked as a case worker for 21 years to find that most of the recipients were those who had no income due to multiple reasons (they were victims of the wars and capitalist exploitation). We must not deceived by media propaganda. Let’s fight for improvement of the welfare system so that every one of people is respected as a human being.

March 20, 2018