Gwangsan-gu, Gwangju Ensures All Eligible Individuals Receive Mobile Communication Fee Discounts

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Lee Gwan-woo] Gwangsan District of Gwangju Metropolitan City is promoting the ‘Automatic Telecommunications Fee Reduction Pilot Project’ as part of the four major living expense reduction benefits for vulnerable groups.

On the 30th, according to Gwangsan District, Kim Sam-ho, mayor of Gwangsan District, attended the ‘Elderly-Vulnerable Groups-Disabled Automatic 100% Telecommunications Fee Reduction City Agreement Ceremony’ held at the National Assembly, hosted by the Democratic Party’s Small but Certain Happiness Special Committee, the Good Local Government Council, and the National Association of Mayors, Governors, and District Heads, and signed the pilot project city agreement for the first time nationwide.

The purpose of this agreement is to provide guidance on the four major living expense reduction systems including mobile telecommunications, electricity, gas, and TV, to create an opportunity for automation and advancement of reduction benefits, and to resolve blind spots in social security.

The three organizations hosting the agreement decided to actively promote the pilot project through this agreement ceremony to save living expenses for the elderly, vulnerable groups, and disabled people who have living expense reduction systems but do not receive benefits because they are unaware of the procedures.

Among the four major living expenses, the current system for mobile telecommunications stipulates a reduction benefit of up to 11,000 KRW per month for vulnerable groups.

However, there is a condition that the beneficiary must apply directly, resulting in about 3.2 million people not receiving the benefit.

In Gwangsan District, the pilot project city, as of this month, there are 53,937 eligible people for mobile telecommunications fee reduction, but 33% of them, 17,865 people, are not receiving the benefit.

Gwangsan District sees this pilot project, which helps reduce up to 132,000 KRW per person annually, as a way to ease household burdens during the difficult times of COVID-19, and plans to directly identify eligible people through the Dong Administrative Welfare Center and the National Pension Service officials.

Mayor Kim Sam-ho of Gwangsan District said at the agreement ceremony, “Based on the welfare administration know-how accumulated by local governments at the forefront, such as the full survey of permanent rental apartments, we will ensure that all eligible elderly, disabled, and vulnerable groups receive reduction benefits. We also proposed system changes to add a fee reduction eligibility inquiry function to the social security information system to easily check eligibility and automatically receive reduction benefits.”

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