May 17, 2019
The Japan Federation of Bar Associations on May 15 held a rally in the Diet building to demand a new law that fully guarantees people’s right to receive public assistance.
Under the Abe government with its cutbacks in public assistance programs, local governments employ so-called “shoreline operations” tactics to reject applications for welfare benefits, which is criticized for discouraging people from applying for assistance.
Lawyer Mori Hironori, on behalf of the JFBA task force coping with the poverty issue, expressed his determination to work hard to replace the current program with a better one which will clearly demonstrate the principle that access to livelihood protection assistance is a public right.
Ritsumeikan University Associate Professor Sakurai Keita, who used to work as a caseworker for the Sakai City government in Osaka, pointed out that the average caseload per caseworker in cities having a population of 500,000 or more and in cities having a population of over 200,000 is 94.3 and 102.3, respectively.
Sakurai reported that the ideal number of families per social worker given by the Welfare Ministry is 65 for those at the prefectural level and 80 for those at the municipal level. He stressed, “It is necessary to create a law containing provisions that limit the number of cases held by one caseworker to the same level as the ministry-set levels.”
Past related article:
> Support group will call on 10K welfare recipients to demand fair public assistance payments [September 15, 2018]
> Gov’t plan to cut welfare payments will threaten recipients’ right to live [January 10, 2018]
> Odawara City employees insult welfare recipients [January 19 & 24, 2017]
Under the Abe government with its cutbacks in public assistance programs, local governments employ so-called “shoreline operations” tactics to reject applications for welfare benefits, which is criticized for discouraging people from applying for assistance.
Lawyer Mori Hironori, on behalf of the JFBA task force coping with the poverty issue, expressed his determination to work hard to replace the current program with a better one which will clearly demonstrate the principle that access to livelihood protection assistance is a public right.
Ritsumeikan University Associate Professor Sakurai Keita, who used to work as a caseworker for the Sakai City government in Osaka, pointed out that the average caseload per caseworker in cities having a population of 500,000 or more and in cities having a population of over 200,000 is 94.3 and 102.3, respectively.
Sakurai reported that the ideal number of families per social worker given by the Welfare Ministry is 65 for those at the prefectural level and 80 for those at the municipal level. He stressed, “It is necessary to create a law containing provisions that limit the number of cases held by one caseworker to the same level as the ministry-set levels.”
Past related article:
> Support group will call on 10K welfare recipients to demand fair public assistance payments [September 15, 2018]
> Gov’t plan to cut welfare payments will threaten recipients’ right to live [January 10, 2018]
> Odawara City employees insult welfare recipients [January 19 & 24, 2017]
