Japan Press Weekly

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2011 July 20 - 26 [WELFARE]

Welfare Ministry to exclude aid recipients’ borrowing of money to buy air conditioners as income

The Welfare Ministry on July 19 gave all prefectures instructions to not designate the money that welfare recipients borrowed for the purchase of air-conditioners as income.

This position came about following a request made by Japanese Communist Party member of the House of Councilors Tamura Tomoko in a House welfare meeting on July 14.

Tamura in her allotted question-answer time cited the fact that households receiving welfare benefits were experiencing difficulty in buying air conditioners because if they obtained a loan to buy air conditioners, the borrowed money would be designated as income and their welfare benefits would be reduced. She urged the ministry to stop designating the loan as income.

Tsuji Seiji, Secretary General of the National Association for Safeguarding People’s Life and Health (Zenseiren), welcomed the ministry’s announcement, saying, “It makes purchasing air-conditioners easier.”

In order to prevent welfare recipients from suffering heat strikes due to the severe heat wave, the Zenseiren has been petitioning local governments and ministries of the Welfare and the Economy to provide financial support to buy air conditioners.

Tamura said that Zenseiren’s nationwide actions led to the welfare ministry’s decision.

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There is another problem regarding the plight of welfare recipients. In Fukushima Prefecture, municipalities stopped paying welfare benefits to household after designating relief money they received as income.