'Welfare Support for Low-Income Tax Delinquents' Selected as This Year's Best Civil Service by Seoul Citizens

Realizing Social Value by Considering Socially Vulnerable Groups, Top 9 Best Cases of Rational Improvement in Civil Complaint Procedures Selected
‘Best Excellence’ Award for Supporting Livelihood-Type Delinquents Such as COVID-19 Closure, Unemployed, and Elderly Without Payment Ability Through Welfare Linkage

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] This year, the best civil complaint service improvement in Seoul was awarded to the 38th Tax Collection Division’s initiative, "Strict Measures for High-Amount Delinquents, Welfare for Livelihood-Type Low-Income Delinquents."

On the 8th, Seoul City announced that among 61 excellent civil complaint cases submitted by the city, autonomous districts, and affiliated organizations, after expert evaluation and online citizen voting, the ‘Best Civil Complaint Service Improvement Case’ was awarded to Seoul City’s ‘Strict Measures for High-Amount Delinquents, Welfare for Livelihood-Type Low-Income Delinquents,’ which received the highest score among the top 9 cases.

The 38th Tax Collection Division of Seoul City relentlessly pursues and collects from malicious high-amount delinquents, while providing continuous and systematic welfare support to livelihood-type delinquents so they can become sincere taxpayers again. Those who have difficulty recovering economically due to business closures or unemployment caused by COVID-19, or elderly delinquents without payment ability, are classified as ‘livelihood-type low-income delinquents’ to ensure they are not left in welfare blind spots. The division supports their application and linkage to welfare programs such as basic livelihood security.

Three excellent civil complaint services were selected. Gwanak-gu’s ‘High-Difficulty Case Management Support System’ supports the independence and self-reliance of street homeless people; Seongdong-gu’s ‘Household Waste Reduction System’ uses data to suppress household waste generation and increase recycling rates; and Seodaemun-gu’s ‘Non-Face-to-Face Welfare Check System’ aims to prevent and reduce solitary deaths.

The nine selected excellent cases were chosen from 61 cases through two rounds of expert evaluation and online citizen voting. A total of 5,426 citizens participated in the online voting held over ten days on ‘Seoul City M-Voting.’ This represents an 11% increase compared to last year’s first-time online voting participation of 4,876 people.

Professor Chae Won-ho of Catholic University, chair of the expert judging panel, commented, “This year’s excellent cases encompass all three areas of E·S·G (Environment, Social, Governance), which have recently become key topics related to sustainable development. This indicates that civil complaint service improvement cases are evolving in the right direction.”

The nine institutions selected for excellent civil complaint service improvement cases will receive a total prize of 9 million KRW and certificates. One institution will receive the grand prize of 2 million KRW, three institutions will receive excellence awards of 1.5 million KRW each, and five institutions will receive encouragement awards of 500,000 KRW each.

Additionally, Seoul City announced 15 outstanding institutions that contributed to improving citizen service satisfaction through excellent civil complaint handling throughout the year. The selection was based on scores evaluating compliance with processing deadlines for approximately 2.37 million annual complaints and the friendliness of telephone and in-person complaint responses assessed through a mystery shopper method.

The overall best institution was selected as the ‘Dongbu Road Project Office.’ In the investment-funded institution category, ‘Seoul Facilities Corporation’ was selected as the best institution for the second consecutive year. In the autonomous district category, ‘Seongdong-gu’ ranked first in all evaluation items and was selected as the best autonomous district with a significant score gap over second-place Guro-gu.

Yoon Jong-jang, Seoul City’s Director of Citizen Communication Planning, stated, “We plan to share the excellent cases chosen by citizens throughout Seoul City. We will continue to strive to improve Seoul City’s civil complaint services to address small inconveniences in citizens’ daily lives and gain their support.” He added, “We will also make various efforts to enhance the processing capabilities of civil complaint officials and increase satisfaction with city administration.”

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