Urgent Employment Stability Support Fund Application Deadline... 1.76 Million Applicants, 58% Payment Rate

Support Fund Application Ends on the 20th... 1.5 Times the Expected Number Applied
Processing Rate at 51.6%, Payment Rate at 58.1% Among Applications

On the 22nd, when the government began accepting offline applications for the 'COVID-19 Emergency Employment Stability Support Fund,' which provides 1.5 million won per person to special employment workers such as private tutors struggling due to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis, freelancers, small business owners, and unpaid leave workers, citizens were submitting their applications in person at the Employment Welfare Plus Center in Jung-gu, Seoul. Photo by Kim Hyun-min kimhyun81@

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bo-kyung] A total of about 1.76 million people applied for the 'Emergency Employment Stability Support Fund,' which provides 1.5 million KRW per person to special-type workers (teukgo), freelancers, small business owners, and unpaid leave workers struggling due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to the Ministry of Employment and Labor on the 21st, the number of applications for the Emergency Employment Stability Support Fund, which began accepting applications from the 1st of last month until the deadline the day before, totaled 1,763,555. This exceeds the initially expected number of eligible recipients (1.14 million) by 1.5 times.

Among the applicants, small business owners accounted for the largest number with 1.1 million applications, followed by teukgo and freelancers with 590,000 applications. Applications from unpaid leave workers totaled 70,000.

Of the total applications, 51.6% have completed the review process, and among those who passed the review, 58.1% have received the support fund.

The Emergency Employment Stability Support Fund targets people like teukgo who fall into blind spots of employment insurance and cannot receive unemployment benefits even if they lose their jobs. If certain conditions are met, 1.5 million KRW is provided per person.

Teukgo, freelancers, and small business owners must prove that their income or sales during March to April of this year, when COVID-19 spread, decreased by a certain percentage compared to the reference period (such as March of last year). Unpaid leave workers must confirm that they were on unpaid leave for a certain period between March and May.

The Ministry of Employment and Labor started accepting online applications on the 1st of last month, and from the 22nd of the same month, offline applications were accepted at employment centers nationwide.

Initially, the plan was to pay 1 million KRW within two weeks from the application date to those who passed the review and provide an additional 500,000 KRW within this month. However, due to the surge in applications, payment delays occurred frequently.

Accordingly, the Ministry designated the period from the 29th of last month to the 20th of this month as the 'intensive processing period,' during which all staff worked on reviewing support fund applications. As of the deadline on the 20th, 51.6% of the total applications had completed the review, and 58.1% of those who passed the review had received the support fund.

The Ministry of Employment and Labor stated, "We will do our best to ensure that the support funds are paid by the end of August."

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