Gokseong-gun Contributes to Easing Eligibility Criteria for Basic Livelihood Security System This Year

Juminbokjigwa Officer Kim Daesung Improves Livelihood Benefit Child Support Ratio Criteria by Gender

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Chunsu] Gokseong-gun, Jeollanam-do announced on the 31st that the significant relaxation of the national basic livelihood security recipient selection criteria since January this year was due to the efforts of an official from the Resident Welfare Division.

According to the government, the selection standard amount for livelihood benefit recipients was raised this year. For a family of four, the livelihood benefit selection standard, which was 1,384,000 KRW last year, increased by 2.94% to 1,424,000 KRW. The basic property amount deducted from the recipient's property value when selecting livelihood, housing, and education benefit recipients was raised from 29 million KRW to 35 million KRW. The limit recognized as residential property also significantly increased from the previous 38 million KRW to 52 million KRW.

Recipients of working age (25 to 64 years old) can deduct 30% of earned income or business income. Additionally, if a household receiving livelihood benefits includes a person with a severe disability, the support obligation criteria for livelihood benefits do not apply. However, considering social sentiment, support obligors with high income (100 million KRW annually) or high property (900 million KRW) are still subject to the existing criteria.

Notably, in the case of livelihood benefits, the support cost imposition rate for those with limited support ability was lowered to 10% regardless of gender or marital status. Previously, sons were charged 30% support cost regardless of marriage, daughters 30% if unmarried and 15% if married. By unifying the support cost without differentiation and lowering the rate, the number of recipients eligible for livelihood benefits has expanded.

This revision of the support cost ratio for recipients was proposed by Kim Daesung, an official of the Integrated Investigation Team in the Resident Welfare Division of Gokseong-gun. While handling the relevant work, Kim Daesung thought that differentiating the support cost imposition rate based on gender ratio was an unreasonable regulation.

Accordingly, he submitted a proposal to improve the unreasonableness of differentiated support cost imposition at the ‘2019 National Idea Contest’ hosted by the Ministry of Government Legislation. As a result, he received a commendation from the Minister of Government Legislation, and the Ministry of Health and Welfare accepted the proposal, reflecting it in the 2020 guidelines.

A county official said, “We will put more effort into discovering eligible recipients and providing customized support following the relaxation of the basic livelihood security support obligor criteria and selection standards in 2020.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.