Daegu City "Apply for Emergency Welfare for COVID-19 Livelihood Difficulties" ... 85% of Project Funds Remaining

Relaxation of 'Emergency Welfare Support' Criteria in March Amid COVID-19
Budget of 141.3 Billion Won Allocated... Only About 14% Paid So Far
Surge in Applications Since June... Exceeding One-Third from January to May

Kwon Young-jin, Mayor of Daegu.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters, Reporter Park Dong-wook] Daegu City announced on the 14th that it is actively identifying households in crisis by easing the criteria for the 'Emergency Welfare Support System' to help vulnerable groups whose lives have become severely difficult due to the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19).

The 'Emergency Welfare Support System' is a program that temporarily and promptly provides emergency living expenses to low-income groups who face difficulties in livelihood due to crisis reasons such as business suspension, closure, or unemployment. Considering the sharp increase in crisis households due to the prolonged COVID-19 situation, Daegu City added 'livelihood difficulties caused by COVID-19' as a crisis reason starting from March 23.

Since the damage from COVID-19 community infections was severe, Daegu City allocated 141.3 billion KRW (including 113 billion KRW in national funds, compared to 12.6 billion KRW in 2019) through supplementary budgets, and as of June 11, paid 20 billion KRW to 16,978 households. This means that 14.1% of the total project budget has been disbursed so far.

Until April and May, the application rate was low because overlapping support with Daegu City's emergency living expenses was not allowed, but according to Daegu City, applications have sharply increased since June when the emergency living expenses payments were completed. The total amount was 14.7 billion KRW from January to May this year, but as of June 11, it has already reached 5.3 billion KRW.

Daegu City has been proactively identifying and supporting crisis households by conducting a full survey of 177,000 households showing 32 types of crisis signals such as rent arrears, electricity or water cutoffs, and health insurance premium arrears through the welfare blind spot detection system launched at the end of May. By the end of September, it plans to prioritize support of 75 billion KRW to citizens facing difficulties and to focus on providing 45 billion KRW over three months from October to December to prepare for the second half COVID-19 resurgence and the winter season.

Kim Jae-dong, Director of the Daegu City Health and Welfare Bureau, emphasized, "Daegu City and the eight districts and counties are actively promoting the emergency welfare support project so that citizens in crisis can gain strength. Citizens facing difficulties in their lives should not hesitate to seek help at their local eup/myeon/dong offices, health and welfare centers by calling 129, or through the city’s website."

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