The labor ministry has estimated that unemployment benefits provided by the government more than tripled in ten years in 2022. 

A ministry official unveiled related data on Monday when explaining to reporters the government’s plan to revamp its system for such allowances before the end of the year. 

According to the ministry, unemployment benefits more than tripled to ten-point-nine trillion won last year from some three-point-four trillion won in 2012. The number of recipients jumped nearly one-a-half times from some one-point-13 million to one-point-63 million during the same period. 

The ministry official said the guarantee for such benefits expanded in 2019, adding that the amount of such allowances surged following an increase in the minimum wage. 

The government and the ruling People Power Party(PPP) are planning to overhaul the benefits system to focus on boosting reemployment by encouraging unemployed people to find jobs as only 28 percent of recipients of such benefits landed a job while getting such allowances. 

The ministry official also emphasized a need to revamp the benefits system for the sake of the fiscal health of the state employment insurance fund, noting that the fund posted a deficit of three-point-nine trillion won as of last year. 

The official’s latest comments come as the government and PPP are considering marking down or eliminating the current lower limit of the allowances. 

The possible abolishment of the minimum, which currently stands at roughly 80 percent of minimum wage, has triggered concern from the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions.