Seoul City to Support Financial Management and Retirement Planning for Single-Person Households... Economic Education Starting March

Autonomous Districts Promote Customized Economic Education for Single-Person Households through Support Centers

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced on the 20th that it will conduct the Single Smile Economic Education for single-person households starting from March this year to alleviate the burden on single-person households who have to secure living expenses and prepare for old age on their own.

Single-person households are relatively vulnerable to rapidly changing economic conditions due to lack of information and unstable income compared to multi-person households. This economic education aims to relieve the economic anxiety of single-person households and systematically support healthy financial planning and retirement preparation. According to recent statistics, the relative poverty rate of single-person households is about four times higher than that of multi-person households, increasing from 13.7% to 51.8%, and especially 70.3% of those aged 50 and above responded that they are not prepared for economic retirement.

Accordingly, the Seoul Metropolitan Government has newly organized economic education programs in the single-person household support centers of autonomous districts to ensure stable economic management for single-person households, and will actively promote education for financial management and retirement planning by accepting applications.

The economic education for single-person households will be conducted in two areas: financial management and debt management, targeting single-person households of all ages, and if necessary, separate in-depth counseling for credit recovery and debt concerns will also be provided.

The financial management education is divided into youth and middle-aged and older groups, and education is provided according to the interests of each generation. Youth education covers topics of great interest to young adults such as the Labor Standards Act, correcting unreasonable consumption habits, understanding financial indicators for investment and economic activities, loans, and credit. For middle-aged and older groups, education will cover understanding of national pension, retirement pension, housing pension, tax-saving methods, and ways to utilize retirement time, focusing on stable retirement preparation for single-person households who are preparing for or have already retired.

Debt management education is provided for single-person households who want counseling related to long-term debt and credit recovery difficulties. The education offers basic counseling, but if single-person households suffering from malignant debt wish, they can receive professional in-depth counseling and support for legal relief procedures.

This economic education is conducted in collaboration with the National Pension Service (Seoul Northern Regional Headquarters) and the Seoul Financial Welfare Counseling Center. Financial management is supported by the National Pension Service, and debt management is supported by the Seoul Financial Welfare Counseling Center. Each institution will provide free education that is practically helpful to single-person households by utilizing excellent professional instructors and various educational contents.

In particular, a business agreement will be signed with the National Pension Service on the 22nd to cooperate for financial education and retirement preparation for Seoul’s single-person households. The annual education schedule can be checked from March on the ‘Seoul Single-Person Household Portal’ and the autonomous district single-person household support centers, and single-person households wishing to participate can apply through the support centers according to the schedule.

Lee Hae-seon, Head of the Seoul Single-Person Household Special Measures Promotion Team, said, “Financial planning and retirement preparation are essential yet difficult for single-person households to manage alone, so we will continuously support single-person households to broaden their understanding of finance and economics and systematically prepare for their retirement life.”

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