South Korea's presidential front-runner pledged Wednesday to scrap a regulation that denies a state subsidy to those who live below the poverty line but have income-earning family members to depend on.
The controversial rule has been blamed for driving poor people, especially those with disabilities, into deeper poverty.
Moon Jae-in, former leader of the liberal Democratic Party, made the pledge during a forum on social issues ahead of the May 9 presidential vote.
Moon Jae-in, former leader of the liberal Democratic Party (Yonhap)
He was referring to a policy that requires low-income citizens to prove all of their direct family members are poor in order to qualify for basic state welfare subsidies. If any family member in a direct line is found to have a certain volume of income and assets, they are not eligible for the basic subsidies. Disabled people have especially condemned the system as a detriment to their welfare.
"Welfare is the starting point for protecting the people's dignity and one of my main pledges is that I want to build a nation that protects the dignity of individual citizens until the last moment of their lives," he said to cheers and applause from members of the audience.
Moon commands approval ratings of over 30 percent and has maintained the lead by a wide margin. In the last election in 2012, he lost to Park Geun-hye who was removed from office over a corruption scandal earlier this month.
During the same forum, Shim Sang-jung, chief of the minor progressive Justice Party, said if elected she will put priority on pardoning a labor union leader who was arrested after fighting against revisions to labor law. (Yonhap)