Busan City to Abolish Support Obligation Criteria for Livelihood Benefits Next Year... Expanding Support for Vulnerable Groups

Abolishing Support Obligation Criteria for Elderly and Single-Parent Recipient Households and Easing Property Standards

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Yong-woo] Busan City will abolish the 'Support Obligation Criteria for Livelihood Benefit Recipients' starting January next year.

This measure was taken in accordance with the '2nd Comprehensive Plan for Basic Livelihood Security' announced by the Ministry of Health and Welfare last August.

As social perceptions of support have changed, the need to improve the support obligation criteria has been raised, considering the actual conditions of non-recipient poor households.

From the new year, households including the elderly and single-parent families applying for livelihood benefits from January next year will be exempt from the application of the support obligation criteria. Accordingly, if the recipient's own income and assets meet the criteria, they will be able to receive livelihood benefits regardless of the presence or absence of a support obligor. The criteria will be completely abolished for other eligible households in 2022.

However, this does not apply to support obligors with an annual income of 100 million KRW (8.34 million KRW per month) or more, or assets exceeding 900 million KRW excluding financial assets.

Due to the establishment of special cases such as payment of job-seeking promotion allowances, other asset criteria and automobile standards are also expected to be relaxed.

Busan City expects that with the relaxation of asset criteria, support for vulnerable groups will expand, eliminating blind spots in poverty and strengthening guarantee benefits.

Accordingly, the number of new and existing recipients is expected to increase by about 20,000 compared to the previous year, and the livelihood benefit budget for next year has been set at 518.1 billion KRW, a 6.6% increase from the previous year.

Applications for livelihood benefits can be made at the resident registration address's eup/myeon/dong community service centers, and for more details, inquiries can be made at the community service centers or the Ministry of Health and Welfare call center.

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