KIHASA to Hold Joint Seminar on Personal Budget System for People with Disabilities

• ■Co-hosted by eight organizations: KIHASA, Korean Association of Disability and Welfare Studies, Ministry of Health and Welfare, Seoul City, Korea Council of Centers for Independent Living (KOCIL), Korea Disabled People's Development Institute, Korea Foundation for Persons with Disabilities, and Korea Association of Welfare Institutions for the Disabled.
  
  

• ■To share the outcomes of the pilot projects conducted by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, Seoul City, and KOCIL, and to explore future policy directions.
  
  

• ■Doubling as the monthly seminar of the Korean Association of Disability and Welfare Studies and featuring three thematic presentations, the event is expected to contribute to the improvement and enrichment of the personal budget system.

KIHASA will hold a seminar titled “Personal Budget System for People with Disabilities: Sharing Outcomes of the Pilot Projects of the Ministry of Health and Welfare, Seoul City, and KOCIL - and Looking Ahead,” on Wednesday, April 9, from 2:00 to 5:00 pm at the conference room of the Seoul Family Plaza.

This seminar doubles as the monthly seminar of the Korean Association of Disability and Welfare Studies (President: Professor Yoon Sang-yong, Chungbuk National University). It aims to compare and analyze the pilot projects implemented each by the Ministry of Health and Welfare (since 2023), Seoul City (since 2024), and KOCIL (since 2024), and to share the results. The event is jointly hosted by KIHASA, the Korean Association of Disability and Welfare Studies, the Ministry of Health and Welfare, Seoul City, KOCIL, the Korea Disabled People's Development Institute, the Korea Foundation for Persons with Disabilities, and the Korea Association of Welfare Institutions for the Disabled.

The presentation session will be moderated by Kim Hyun-seung, Head of the Policy Research Center at the Seoul Welfare Foundation and Chair of the Research Subcommittee of the Korean Association of Disability and Welfare Studies, and will include the following three presentations:

1. “Comparison and Issues of the Pilot Models of the Ministry of Health and Welfare, Seoul City, and KOCIL” will be presented by Lee Hanna, Research Fellow at KIHASA and lead researcher of the Ministry’s pilot project. This presentation will compare the models and present key issues and outcomes of the Ministry’s pilot project.

2. “Results and Future Prospects of the First Pilot Project of Seoul-style Personal Budget System” will be presented by Professor Kim Dong-ki of Mokwon University, who participated in the research for the Seoul pilot project. It will cover the outcomes of the first phase and make policy suggestions for the upcoming second phase, which will start in the first half of this year.

3. “Significance of KOCIL’s Advocacy-based Personal Budget Learning Group Project and Policy Suggestions” will be presented by Ahn Hyung-jin, Deputy Director of the Independent Living Research Center under KOCIL. It will outline the activities and practices of the advocacy-based personal budget learning group and make corresponding policy recommendations for advocacy-based personal budgets.

The presentations will be followed by a comprehensive panel discussion. The panelists include: Park Jung-yeop, Secretary-General of the Eunpyeong Neulbom Center for Independent Living (participant in KOCIL’s pilot); Moon Young-im, Head of the Integrated Disability Research Division at the Korea Foundation for Persons with Disabilities (overseeing Seoul’s pilot); and Yoo Myung-Hae, Head of the Policy Support Team at the Korea Disabled People's Development Institute (overseeing the Ministry’s pilot).

The seminar will offer sign language and caption interpretation and will be broadcast live on KIHASA’s YouTube channel. Amid growing interest in the personal budget system for people with disabilities, this seminar―by comparing and analyzing the pilot models of each implementing organization and exploring future policy directions―is expected to make a meaningful contribution to the improvement and enhancement of the system moving forward.