Seoul City Opens One-Stop Application for Childbirth Expenses and Birth Incentive Grants for Disabled Persons

[Asia Economy Reporter Jo In-kyung] On the 11th, Seoul City announced that it has improved the process by accepting applications for childbirth incentive payments and disability childbirth expense payments, which are provided by basic local governments, on a single form and processing them through a one-stop system.

Currently, each local government provides childbirth incentive payments when residents give birth. In particular, women with disabilities may face greater economic difficulties due to relatively higher costs during pregnancy and childbirth compared to non-disabled women, so disability childbirth expenses are supported as a policy measure.

Disability childbirth expenses provide 1 million KRW per fetus to women with disabilities when giving birth. Payments are also made in cases of miscarriage or stillbirth after more than four months of pregnancy. In Seoul, support is also provided when the spouse of a severely disabled man gives birth.

A city official explained, "Childbirth incentive payments are applied for at the community service center when registering a birth, ensuring no omissions. However, disability childbirth expenses required a separate application, which caused issues such as omissions due to dual application processes or disabled persons having to visit the community service center again."

Accordingly, Seoul City added fields for disability status and other information to the childbirth incentive payment application forms used by local governments, allowing childbirth incentive payments and disability childbirth expense applications to be processed on a single form. Additionally, for households with disabled births, administrative services related to childbirth can be received collectively when applying for childbirth incentive payments.

The city expects this measure to minimize unnecessary public institution visits (face-to-face services) to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19), simplify the application process to reduce omissions, and simultaneously increase work efficiency and budget savings.

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