Welfare Ministry intends to reduce livelihood protection benefits

   A Welfare Ministry panel on November 30 published a report claiming that the current livelihood protection benefits level is higher than the consumption level of the lowest income households.

   Welfare Minister Masuzoe Yoichi at a press conference on the same day said, “We will deal with this report seriously and start working on the issue based on it,” showing his intention to lower the livelihood protection standards in the FY 2008 budget.

   The livelihood protection standards have been set based on the consumption level of ordinary households. The panel has focused its discussion on the comparison between the protection standards and the consumption level of low income households in line with the “Basic Policies for Economic and Fiscal Management and Structural Reform 2006” adopted by the former Koizumi government.

   The report calculated that a model household (married couple with a child) in the lowest income bracket spends 148,781 yen a month for their basic needs, 1,627 yen lower than the current livelihood protection standards.

   However, households in the lowest income bracket are hardly able to make a living. To lower the living protection standards using the “balance with low income earners” as a pretext will deny the concept of the minimum necessary protection level and create “bottomless poverty.”
- Akahata, December 1, 2007