Abolishment of Support Obligation Criteria for Those Aged 75 and Over Starting August

Support Possible Even When Living with Children or Grandchildren if Income and Property Criteria Are Met... Expected to Eliminate Welfare Blind Spots by Supporting Vulnerable Groups Previously Excluded Due to Existing Support Obligation Standards

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jong-il] Yangcheon-gu (Mayor Kim Soo-young) will abolish and apply the support obligation criteria for seniors aged 75 and over under the ‘Seoul-type Basic Security’ from August to find more residents in welfare blind spots and increase beneficiaries.

The ‘Seoul-type Basic Security System’ is a system that guarantees a minimum livelihood to the non-beneficiary poor who are in difficult living conditions but do not meet the legal criteria such as support obligation persons and thus are not eligible for the government’s statutory basic security system support. It was started by Seoul City in July 2013 to eliminate welfare blind spots.

With the abolition of the support obligation criteria applied from this August, the threshold for receiving ‘Seoul-type Basic Security’ support, which provides living expenses to low-income vulnerable groups in welfare blind spots who were excluded from the government’s basic livelihood security eligibility, has been significantly lowered.

If only income and property criteria are met, support can be received even if living with children or grandchildren. According to the selection criteria for Seoul-type Basic Security beneficiaries, before the abolition of the support obligation criteria, both the beneficiary and the support obligation person had to meet income and property standards, but after abolition, only the beneficiary’s income and property criteria need to be met. The support obligation criteria apply to ‘first-degree lineal relatives and their spouses of the beneficiary,’ excluding the spouses of deceased first-degree lineal relatives.

However, if the support obligation household’s income exceeds 100 million KRW annually or has property worth more than 900 million KRW, the support obligation criteria will continue to apply as before.

The support obligation criteria will be gradually abolished starting with seniors aged 75 and over this year, seniors aged 70 and over in 2021, and all seniors aged 65 and over in 2022.

Therefore, seniors aged 75 and over who were unable to receive the ‘Seoul-type Basic Security’ benefits due to the support obligation criteria can apply at the community service center of their registered address. The application data will be sent to the district office, where income and property investigations will be conducted, and the support decision will be notified in writing.

By applying the abolition criteria of the support obligation, if only income (below 43% of the median income) and property (below 135 million KRW) criteria are met, Seoul-type Basic Security services can be supported. Support is provided in cash such as livelihood benefits, with a maximum monthly support of 264,000 KRW for a single-person household and 713,000 KRW for a four-person household.

Yangcheon-gu is discovering beneficiaries by sequentially providing individual guidance to basic pension recipients aged 75 and over and utilizing various community channels such as the website, newsletters, welfare planners, and welfare centers to ensure more residents can benefit.

Mayor Kim Soo-young said, “Due to the impact of COVID-19, the number of basic livelihood security recipients in Seoul increased by 19,000 compared to January. As the support obligation criteria, which have been the main cause of welfare blind spots, have been significantly relaxed and the threshold for receiving Seoul-type Basic Security has been lowered, we will make further efforts to ensure that residents in crisis situations in Yangcheon-gu can receive the benefits of the Seoul-type Basic Security system. We will also actively review and improve any issues arising during the operation to minimize welfare blind spots,” he said.

For more details, please contact the Self-Reliance Support Division or the relevant community service center.

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