Emergency Disaster Relief Fund of 9.1 Trillion Won to Be Distributed to 14 Million Low-Income Households... 1 Million Won for a Family of Four (Update)

Payment Methods Including Local Gift Certificates and Electronic Money

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporters Kim Hyun-jung and Joo Sang-don] The government will provide emergency disaster relief funds amounting to approximately 9.1 trillion won to 14 million households in the bottom 70% income bracket to support those affected by the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19).

On the 30th, the government held the 3rd Emergency Economic Meeting chaired by President Moon Jae-in and finalized the plan to introduce the emergency disaster relief funds. The support targets are 14 million households in the bottom 70% income bracket, and based on households of four or more members, 1 million won will be provided through local gift certificates or electronic money currently used by local governments. Along with this, to ease burdens such as social insurance premiums, the following measures will be implemented: ▲ 30% reduction in health insurance premiums for the bottom 20-40% income bracket (for 3 months) ▲ 30% reduction in industrial accident insurance premiums (for 6 months) ▲ deferral of national pension and employment/industrial accident insurance premium payments (for 3 months) ▲ deferral of electricity bill payments (for 3 months).

The total scale of the emergency disaster relief funds is expected to be 9.1 trillion won. Adding the low-income consumer coupons and emergency welfare funds (1.2 trillion won), which are 100% funded by the national treasury through supplementary budgets, the total amount used for COVID-19 response support will reach 10.3 trillion won.

The actual funding will be secured through adjustments in the budget expenditure structure. The plan is to reduce as much as possible by focusing on projects expected to have execution delays due to changing conditions or projects where active budget cuts are feasible.

The government plans to prepare the second supplementary budget as soon as possible with the emergency disaster relief fund as a single project and establish a cooperative system with local governments to coordinate project plans in advance. While the government’s proposed criteria will be met in principle, the execution method and additional support will be tailored as much as possible to the circumstances of local governments. To this end, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety and the Ministry of Health and Welfare have been designated as the main ministries in charge of the project.

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