Jinju City Secures 500 Million Won Budget for Emergency Welfare Support for At-Risk Households...

Extension of Emergency Welfare System Criteria Relaxation Until the End of June

Welfare Call Center Consultation Scene [Image Source=Jinju City]

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Choi Soon-kyung] Jinju City, Gyeongnam Province, announced on the 30th that it will provide emergency welfare support to low-income households facing difficulties due to job loss, temporary closure, or business suspension caused by the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) by applying relaxed criteria until June.

The 'Emergency Welfare Support System' is a project that provides rapid welfare services to households in crisis that require urgent support due to temporary crisis situations. Under the relaxed criteria, the property standard has been expanded to 200 million KRW, and the deduction rate for financial assets and living preparation funds has been increased to 7,124,000 KRW for a family of four.

In 2019, the city supported 947 households with 708 million KRW through emergency welfare. However, in response to the sharp increase in low-income crisis households struggling with livelihood due to the economic downturn caused by the spread of COVID-19 last year, the city secured a project budget of 1.67 billion KRW, a 135% increase compared to the previous year, and supported 2,559 households with emergency living, medical, and housing expenses.

This year, the city has secured a project budget of 1.408 billion KRW and is actively identifying low-income households facing difficulties due to job loss, temporary closure, or business suspension through local community security councils in eup, myeon, and dong areas, honorary social welfare officers, and other human safety nets.

As of March, a total of 1.315 billion KRW has been provided to 1,315 households, including 1,197 households receiving living expense support, 11 households receiving medical expense support, and 36 households receiving housing expense support, executing 66% of the budget.

Furthermore, anticipating a continued increase in crisis households due to the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic, the city plans to actively promote support projects for neighbors in need by securing an additional budget of 500 million KRW, bringing the total to 1.942 billion KRW to ensure no welfare blind spots related to COVID-19.

A city official stated, “Citizens who need emergency welfare support due to crisis reasons are advised to first consult by phone at the eup/myeon office, dong administrative welfare center, or Jinju Welfare Telephone Counseling Office, then prepare the required documents and visit the city welfare policy department to apply.”

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