Seoul City to Prevent Mother-Child Tragedy in Bangbae-dong ... Abolishing the 'Support Obligation System'

Strengthening Monitoring of Welfare Blind Spot Crisis Households

On the 18th, with 1,062 new confirmed cases of COVID-19, citizens lined up in a long queue at a temporary screening clinic set up in Seoul Plaza, Jung-gu, Seoul, to receive diagnostic tests. Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

[Asia Economy Reporter Jo In-kyung] The Seoul Metropolitan Government has decided to abolish the support obligation system. The aim is to prevent cases like the "Bangbae-dong mother and child" incident, where families with supporting members who have income were unable to receive living expenses support and faced difficulties. This move is one year ahead of the central government and is the first among local governments nationwide.

With the abolition of the support obligation system in the Seoul-type Basic Security System, about 2,300 additional households will receive welfare benefits.

Regarding the Care SOS Service, from this month, those who do not meet the qualification criteria can receive services in urgent situations, and if income verification for cost support qualification takes time or is ambiguous, the principle of "support first, verify later" will be applied. The crisis household visit monitoring, which varies by autonomous district, will be systematized by dividing the crisis level into four stages (1 to 4), with visits conducted once a month, once a quarter, once every six months, and once a year, respectively.

Due to restrictions on face-to-face care caused by the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19), the risk of social isolation has increased for elderly households, etc. For these, a non-face-to-face "Smart Welfare Discovery System" using IT technology will be introduced. This system automatically detects and responds to situations such as no electricity usage or smartphone usage for a certain period of time.

Although the number of active members reaches about 110,000, the resident welfare communities scattered across multiple organizations will be integrated and operated as two groups: "Honorary Social Welfare Officers" and "Neighbor Caregivers."

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