Gangneung City Official Receiving Basic Livelihood Security Benefits: "I Feel Extremely Wronged, Cannot Return the Money"

On the 11th, Gangneung City in Gangwon Province announced that it conducted a full investigation into a public official affiliated with the city who received basic living benefits claiming no income due to parental leave, but no cases of fraudulent receipt were found.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bong-ju] Gangneung City, Gangwon Province announced on the 11th that it conducted a full investigation into a public official affiliated with the city who received basic living security benefits claiming no income due to parental leave, but no cases of fraudulent receipt were found.

Last month, Gangneung City conducted a full investigation on 1,717 households and 2,096 individuals whose recognized income was zero.

According to the investigation, general matters such as age group changes and income fluctuations were confirmed, but no cases requiring salary recovery like that of public official A, who was on parental leave, were found.

However, it was reported that A stated they would not return the basic living security benefits they had received so far.

Gangneung City ordered A in January to return 16 million KRW in basic living security benefits received during parental leave (from August 2018 to April 2019).

In response, A stated, "I feel extremely unfair. I was rightfully qualified to apply."

After this issue surfaced, A submitted a resignation to Gangneung City, which was accepted.

As A resigned from the public service and is recognized as having no income, it will practically become difficult to recover the basic living benefits paid so far if A remains a basic living security recipient.

A Gangneung City official said, "We need A's willingness to return the basic living security benefits to recover them, but A insists they feel extremely unfair," adding, "We will take this opportunity to monitor basic living security recipients more diligently and strengthen efforts to detect fraudulent recipients."

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