Gwangju City, Over 528,000 Households Apply for Emergency Household Living Expenses

85.3% of All Households in Gwangju... More Than Twice the Expected Number of Eligible Applicants

Gwangju City Hall

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Seon-gang] Gwangju Metropolitan City received final applications from 528,780 households for the emergency household living expense support project, which was promoted to stabilize the livelihood of low-income families and enhance their consumption capacity.

According to Gwangju City on the 10th, the application period for the emergency household living expense support project was from the 1st to the 8th of last month.

Among the application methods, 442,626 households applied online through the city hall website from the 1st of last month, accounting for 83.7% of the total, while 86,154 households applied in person at the district administrative welfare centers starting from the 6th of last month, making up 16.3%.

This corresponds to 85.3% of the total 620,500 households in Gwangju City based on the resident registration at the end of March, and is more than double the 260,000 households that Gwangju City had estimated as eligible when establishing the project plan.

Gwangju City set the eligibility for the emergency household living expense support at households with an income at or below 100% of the median income, excluding about 80,000 households such as basic livelihood security recipients. However, as the COVID-19 crisis prolonged, the number of citizens hoping for support from the government and local governments increased, leading to a surge in applications.

In fact, a significant number of applicant households who were judged ineligible based on income verification by the autonomous districts have recently filed objections citing reasons such as income reduction.

Also, since cohabitants registered in the resident registration are recognized as separate households, the number of households increased significantly, and for online applications through the city hall website, there is no mechanism to filter out duplicate applications, so many erroneous applications are expected.

Accordingly, Gwangju City judged that the 91 billion won budget secured in the first supplementary budget at the end of March for the emergency household living expense support would be greatly insufficient, and plans to discuss with the city council the inclusion of additional required budget in the second supplementary budget proposal.

Furthermore, as applications for the government’s emergency disaster relief fund will begin at all district administrative welfare centers from the 18th, the city plans to promptly complete income verification and screening procedures for households applying for the emergency household living expense support and complete support for eligible households by the end of this month.

Ryu Mi-su, head of the city’s Social Welfare Division, said, “The emergency household living expense is playing a role like rain in a drought for citizens struggling due to the prolonged COVID-19 situation,” and added, “We will make it a driving force for the local economy to regain vitality and for citizens to restore their daily lives through swift support.”

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