A Study on the Integration of Funeral Benefits for Social Security

According to changes in population and family structure, Single-person households and the number of deaths without ties are on the rise. To expand welfare for death, one of the social risks, This study was planned. There is a need for a funeral welfare system for the whole nation by consolidating the social security system’s funeral benefits. The research method used an in-depth expert interview and Data were collected through semi-structured in-depth interviews and analyzed by a continuous comparison method. The 6 experts are experienced researchers working in the social security system. As a result of the analysis, 6 categories, 12 patterns, and 17 meanings were derived: The analysis frameworks(6 categories) are the need for integration, the Coverage, Benefits, the Financial resources, delivery system and Govnernance. First, Although we agree in a broad framework on the need for funeral benefits and integration as funeral welfare, it can be seen that there are some disagreements in the sub-method. Second, The Coverage is for the entire nation, but it suggests a plan to make the benefit eligible to be a death without connection or a single-person household, and a method to apply cash benefits and funeral services to all citizens universally. Third, the Benefits level suggests that the minimum cost or funeral service for a dignified funeral is provided by examining the appropriate funeral cost. Fourth, there are differences in the division of roles between social insurance and local governments in the creation of financial resources. Depending on the cause of death, individual social insurance bears the cost, and local governments bear funeral service support and management and operation costs. Finally, the delivery system and Governance suggests how to manage cash benefits by one of the social insurance management organizations, and in the care of in-kind funeral services, local governments entrust them to the the Province public Agency for Social Service, and the Korea Funeral Culture ＆ Policy Institute takes charge of the screening and evaluation. It can be used as basic data for discussions to strengthen death welfare.