Gwangju Dong-gu Implements Emergency Welfare Support for COVID-19

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Seon-gang] Dong-gu, Gwangju Metropolitan City (Mayor Im Taek) announced on the 17th that it will actively implement an emergency welfare project to support households struggling with livelihood due to vulnerable groups facing crisis situations caused by the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic.

Emergency welfare is a system designed to provide rapid support to households in urgent need due to sudden livelihood difficulties or other crisis situations, helping them escape from urgent crises. Previously, support was only provided for reasons such as the death, unemployment, fire, suspension, or closure of the main income earner.

Due to the economic difficulties caused by the COVID-19 situation, Dong-gu has decided to temporarily and significantly relax the criteria and broadly apply crisis reasons recognized by the local government head, expanding the scope of emergency welfare support starting from this day.

In particular, this emergency support will temporarily allow flexible support for recipients by ▲ relaxing the property criteria for actual residence ▲ expanding the financial asset criteria from the existing 5 million KRW to 10 million KRW ▲ permitting re-support within 2 years.

To this end, communication channels for smooth consultations will be established at each Dong Administrative Welfare Center and the district office.

With the implementation of this system, small business owners, micro-entrepreneurs, and those receiving unpaid leave due to COVID-19 will be able to receive livelihood support (1.23 million KRW for a family of four) for up to six months, which is expected to help resolve crisis factors for vulnerable groups.

Im Taek, Mayor of Dong-gu, said, “The number of residents facing livelihood threats, including small business owners, is increasing due to the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic,” and added, “We will significantly expand the scope of emergency welfare support until COVID-19 ends to ensure that no blind spots occur.”

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