Relaxation of Application Criteria for 'Seoul-type Paid Sick Leave'... Up to 11 Days of Living Expense Support

Up to 11 Days of Annual Living Expense Support for Vulnerable Workers During Hospitalization or Health Checkups... Eligible Workers with Earned or Business Income Registered in Nowon-gu and Maintaining National Health Insurance Regional Subscriber Status from One Month Before Hospitalization to Completion of Review

[Asia Economy Reporter Jongil Park] Nowon-gu (District Mayor Oh Seung-rok) announced on the 13th that the application criteria for the ‘Seoul-type Paid Sick Leave,’ implemented since June last year, have been relaxed.

The ‘Seoul-type Paid Sick Leave’ is a system that supports living expenses based on the Seoul living wage for up to 11 days annually (10 days for hospitalization, 1 day for health checkup) when vulnerable workers who could not take time off due to family support or livelihood reasons are unable to work due to hospitalization or health checkups.

Applicants must have been registered as residents in Nowon-gu from one month before the hospitalization date until the completion of the review, and must be wage earners or business income earners who maintained their qualification as National Health Insurance regional subscribers during the hospitalization (or checkup) period.

The changes compared to last year concern the ‘eligibility conditions,’ ‘required documents,’ and ‘support amount.’

Eligibility has been relaxed to residency in Seoul from one month before the hospitalization (or checkup) date until the review completion, and the National Health Insurance regional subscription condition has also been relaxed to maintaining qualification during the hospitalization (or checkup) period. Unlike last year, deceased persons are not eligible to apply.

The required documents have been greatly simplified. The family relation certificate has been excluded, and applicants can apply without directly submitting resident registration copies, business registration certificates, health checkup result notifications, National Health Insurance qualification certificates, employment insurance daily worker records, or bankbook copies. Instead, for hospitalization, a medical certificate stating the disease name and medical expense receipts must be submitted, and for checkups less than one month old, the health checkup result notification must be submitted. Depending on the case, lease contracts or loan confirmation documents may be required.

The support amount, which was 81,180 KRW per day for hospitalization and checkups in 2019, has been increased to 84,180 KRW this year.

Unchanged from last year are the maximum support period of up to 11 days annually (10 days for hospitalization, 1 day for general health checkup by the corporation) and the income and property criteria (household median income 100% or less, property 250 million KRW or less). If hospitalization and checkup occur on the same day, duplicate support is not provided.

It should be noted that Seoul-type Paid Sick Leave does not support hospitalization for non-disease treatment purposes such as beauty, plastic surgery, childbirth, or convalescence.

Additionally, overlapping benefits from National Basic Livelihood Security, Seoul-type Basic Security, emergency welfare, industrial accident insurance, unemployment benefits, automobile insurance, etc., are restricted.

The district office reviews applicants’ eligibility and notifies the results by phone, mail, or text within 30 days from the application date.

Last year, the district supported 64 million KRW to 173 eligible applicants out of 219 who applied for paid sick leave support.

Oh Seung-rok, Mayor of Nowon-gu, said, “I hope the Seoul-type Paid Sick Leave support will be of some help to vulnerable workers,” and added, “We will continue to do our best to eliminate medical blind spots.”

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