Gwangju City Extends 'Emergency Welfare Support Relaxation' Until Year-End

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Yoon Jamin] Gwangju Metropolitan City announced on the 7th that it will extend the 'Emergency Welfare Support Relaxation Criteria' until the end of December to protect low-income crisis households due to the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic.

Emergency welfare support is a system that temporarily and promptly provides welfare services such as emergency living expenses and medical expenses to low-income groups who have difficulty maintaining their livelihood due to sudden crisis situations such as the death, unemployment, or illness of a major income earner.

The support targets households experiencing crisis reasons such as unemployment, business suspension/closure, or illness, and if they meet income (below 75% of median income) and property (general property below 188 million KRW, financial assets below 5 million KRW) criteria, they can receive emergency welfare benefits such as living, medical, housing, and education depending on the situation.

In the case of living benefits, a household of four can receive up to 1.26 million KRW per month for a maximum of six months.

As the number of households facing difficulties due to COVID-19 has increased, the support conditions were temporarily relaxed. According to the relaxed support criteria, households with below 75% of median income, general property below 350 million KRW, and financial assets below 12,314,000 KRW for a four-person household can receive support.

Also, livelihood difficulties caused by COVID-19 are recognized as a crisis reason. Previously, re-support was not possible within two years for the same crisis reason, but now re-support is possible if three months have passed since the end of the emergency support.

Gwangju City, through active crisis household discovery and case management by autonomous districts and dong administrative welfare centers, supported 27,869 cases and 18.43 billion KRW in emergency living and medical expenses for low-income households experiencing crisis situations as of the end of last month. This is an increase of 5.2 billion KRW compared to 13.22 billion KRW in the same period last year.

Citizens who have difficulty maintaining their livelihood due to damage from COVID-19 can also receive emergency welfare support consultations through their local dong administrative welfare centers.

Ryu Misu, head of the city's Social Welfare Division, said, “We will actively strive to prevent blind spots in the social safety net through proactive discovery of crisis households,” and added, “Please check if there are households around you facing sudden crises and make good use of the emergency welfare support system to overcome the crisis.”

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