Seongdong-gu, Disaster Emergency Living Expense Data Analysis to Identify Welfare Blind Spots

18,074 Single-Person Households at 50% Median Income Designated as 'Crisis Management Group', Survey Underway

A scene of applying for emergency disaster living expenses support and receiving welfare counseling

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jong-il] “Many people who came to apply for disaster emergency living expenses ended up receiving welfare consultations. These were people who had not applied before because they were unaware of welfare programs.”

This is according to a community service center official who said that among the visitors to the community service center in Seoul last May for disaster emergency living expenses, there were often cases where people decided to receive consultations and were able to get the necessary support.

Seongdong-gu (District Mayor Jung Won-oh) announced that it will use the application data for Seoul’s disaster emergency living expenses, which are applied for by residents with household income below 100% of the median income, to meticulously and thoroughly identify welfare blind spots that had not been discovered before.

Starting from the 8th, in a pilot project, Seongdong-gu Big Data Center will collaborate with the Social Security Information Service Data Center to utilize statistical data from Seoul’s disaster emergency living expenses applications, aiming to discover blind spots more accurately with better data.

As of June 1, Seongdong-gu reported that out of a total of 135,712 households, 48% (66,366 households) applied for Seoul’s disaster emergency living expenses, and among them, 75% (50,393 households) were deemed eligible and received support.

According to the data, single-person households account for 41% of the total households, indicating a high proportion of people living alone. Single-person households made up 44% of all applicants, and among them, 10,113 households had no income at all, representing 15% of all applicants.

By age group, among single-person households with no income, those in their 40s to 60s accounted for over 45%, confirming a connection to the recent social issue of solitary deaths due to economic difficulties faced by middle-aged and older single-person households.

Accordingly, the district designated 18,074 single-person households, including 10,113 with no income, who fall under the legal lower-income bracket of 50% of the median income, as a crisis management group. Through a full survey, they will focus on identifying and supporting those whose livelihoods have become difficult due to reduced summer work or the impact of COVID-19.

To conduct the survey, 18 new members of the ‘Our Neighborhood Care Team’ were hired, and resident honorary social welfare officers called ‘Juju Salpimi’ and welfare block leaders will be utilized to check living and housing conditions. Welfare officers will provide one-on-one guidance on public benefits such as basic living subsidies and lower-income support through non-face-to-face contact methods like phone calls or mail.

A scene of Seoul City Disaster Emergency Living Expense Support Application Guidance at Haengdang 1-dong Community Service Center

In particular, to compensate for the difficulty of face-to-face training on identifying and investigating vulnerable households due to the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic, related materials will be produced and distributed as videos. This will promote the ability of not only welfare block leaders directly involved in the identification process but also general residents to find vulnerable households.

Jung Won-oh, Mayor of Seongdong-gu, said, “We have been deeply considering ways to discover residents in welfare blind spots in our area. By using direct and accurate data from applicants for Seoul’s disaster emergency living expenses, we expect to establish a plan to find and support difficult residents whom we had not been able to identify before, enabling the realization of more thorough welfare policies.”

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