"Chaos Ensues" Busan Emergency Disaster 'Prepaid Cards' Have All Run Out

Busan City Decides to Suspend Payments Until the End of This Month... Also Demands Apology for Demand Forecasting Failure

A text message announcing the suspension of prepaid card distribution. As the prepaid cards ran out in the frontline districts of Busan, the city urgently sent out such text messages starting from the 23rd.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Yong-woo] The government’s emergency disaster relief fund distribution in the form of ‘prepaid cards’ has been completely suspended in Busan. Among all local governments nationwide, Busan is the first to halt all regional prepaid card distributions.

On the 24th, Busan City announced that all 16 districts and counties will temporarily suspend the distribution of government emergency disaster relief prepaid cards until the 31st of this month, and will resume accepting prepaid card applications under a 5-day rotation system starting June 1.

From the 25th, applications for prepaid cards can be made online, with cards available for pickup after June 1. Applications for the regional currency Dongbaekjeon cards and credit/debit cards will continue as usual.

This unprecedented ‘prepaid card crisis’ caused by the suspension of emergency disaster relief fund distribution appears to be due to Busan City’s failure to accurately forecast demand.

Citizens’ preference for prepaid cards caused a surge in demand, while the number of applicants using the regional currency Dongbaekjeon, which has relatively more usage restrictions, was low.

Busan City had predicted that a significant portion of households applying for the government emergency disaster relief fund would use the regional currency Dongbaekjeon, and prepared prepaid cards assuming they would account for about 20% of total orders.

However, the opposite occurred. Demand for Dongbaekjeon was low, and as more people than expected applied for prepaid cards, some district administrative welfare centers ran out of cards and were unable to distribute the relief funds.

Initially, only three districts?Haeundae, Geumjeong, and Yeonje?exhausted their prepaid card supplies and suspended distribution. But as similar situations unfolded in other districts, the city sent an unprecedented ‘suspension’ message to citizens. From the 23rd to the 31st, prepaid card distribution was halted across all areas of Busan.

In response to this situation, calls for an apology from Busan City have intensified, especially within the civil servant community.

The Busan branch of the National Public Officials Labor Union stated that the suspension of prepaid card distribution was due to Busan City’s inaccurate demand forecasting, which increased citizen inconvenience and caused administrative confusion in frontline districts and counties. They urged Acting Mayor Byun Sung-wan to publicly apologize.

They also demanded that the city engage in discussions with the labor unions of public officials in all 16 districts and counties to resolve policy issues and prevent recurrence of such incidents.

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