Expansion of Family Care Cost Payment to 10 Days: "Dual-Income Couples Can Receive Up to 1 Million Won"

Increase of maximum amount per person from 250,000 to 500,000 KRW
Retroactive application possible... Simplified application documents and procedures
Over 53,000 applications received... 69% are women

Minister Lee Jae-gap of the Ministry of Employment and Labor is briefing on COVID-19 livelihood support measures for vulnerable groups at the Government Seoul Office in Jongno-gu, Seoul, on the 30th. Photo by Kim Hyun-min kimhyun81@

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bo-kyung] The government is extending the payment period for family care cost support from the existing 5 days to a maximum of 10 days. Accordingly, the support amount will also increase from up to 250,000 KRW per person to 500,000 KRW. If a couple applies together, they can receive up to 1,000,000 KRW in support.

The Ministry of Employment and Labor announced this on the morning of the 9th at the Economic Ministers' Meeting on COVID-19 Response and the 4th Crisis Management Meeting.

The Ministry decided to extend the emergency support period for family care costs from 5 days to a maximum of 10 days to encourage workers to actively use family care leave. This is due to the increased demand from workers who need to personally care for their children because of delays in daycare and kindergarten openings and the phased online school openings caused by COVID-19.

The family care cost support program provides financial aid to workers who have taken family care leave due to illness, accidents, or child-rearing related to COVID-19. Family care leave is originally an unpaid leave that can be used for up to 10 days, but the Ministry of Employment and Labor began accepting applications for support payments last month to alleviate the economic burden on workers using the leave. The program targets workers raising children aged 8 or younger (up to 2nd grade in elementary school), with a daily support amount of 50,000 KRW.

With the extension of the support period, the maximum support amount per worker will increase from 250,000 KRW to 500,000 KRW. Couples can receive up to 1,000,000 KRW combined.

Additionally, workers with children entering 3rd grade in elementary school this year can also receive support for leave taken during the online school opening period. Workers who have already used the full 10 days of family care leave will receive retroactive support for all 10 days of care costs.

When applying for additional family care cost support, the application documents and procedures will be simplified. If a worker has already used 10 days of family care leave but only applied for 5 days of support and has not yet received payment, they only need to supplement the employer’s confirmation of leave days used.

If support has already been paid, duplicate documents such as family relationship certificates do not need to be submitted for additional applications. Those who have not yet applied for family care costs can use all 10 days of family care leave and apply at once.

Following this measure, a total budget of 53 billion KRW will be invested, adding 31.6 billion KRW to the previously allocated 21.3 billion KRW in contingency funds. It is expected that a total of 120,000 households will benefit from the family care cost support.

Since applications opened on the 16th of last month, a total of 53,230 applications have been received as of the 7th, averaging 3,100 applications per day. Female applicants account for 69.0% (36,728 people), but male applicants also make up 31% (16,502 people).

The majority of applications (97.2%, 51,763 people) were for using care leave to look after children due to school delays, closures, or suspensions. By company size, workplaces with fewer than 10 employees accounted for the largest share with 20,799 applications (39.1%), followed by workplaces with 10 to fewer than 100 employees at 14,402 applications (27.1%).

Minister of Employment and Labor Lee Jae-gap stated, "We hope that extending the family care cost support period will help ease the burden of childcare for workers, even if only a little."

For more details on family care leave and emergency family care cost support, visit the Ministry of Employment and Labor website, Facebook, Appanet, or contact the Ministry’s consultation center at ☎1350.

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