Seoul City to Start Accepting Applications for Phase 2 of Safe Income from Tomorrow

Recruitment Open Until February 10

[Asia Economy Reporter Kiho Sung] The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced on the 24th that it will accept applications for the 'Phase 2 Participation Households in the Basic Income Pilot Project,' a future welfare model, for 17 days from tomorrow until the 10th of next month.

Basic Income is a new income security system designed to concentrate more benefits on vulnerable groups with low income by comparing the standard income and household income and supporting half of the shortfall amount.

Any household residing in Seoul (based on resident registration) with a household income at or below 85% of the median standard income and assets of 326 million KRW or less can apply.

After a six-month selection process, 1,100 households will be selected as the support group, and the final selected households will receive monthly support for two years equal to half the difference between the 85% median income standard and their household income.

Households wishing to participate can apply online through the Seoul Welfare Portal until the 10th of next month. Anyone can easily apply without separate documents by simply completing a basic identity verification process, and participation is also possible via mobile. During the first four days of the recruitment period, applications will be accepted on an odd-even basis according to the last digit of the birth year to prevent system overload, after which applications can be submitted freely.

Households that find online application difficult can apply through the Basic Income application call center, which will operate from the 6th to the 10th of next month.

Not only the head of the household but any household member can apply; however, each household can participate only once either online or through the call center. The city will select 1,100 support households through a three-round random sampling method considering household size and head of household age.

Additionally, the city will select 2,200 comparison households that will not receive Basic Income benefits. This is for verifying the effectiveness of Basic Income, and these households will participate in the study along with the support group until 2026. The comparison group will receive a small reward for responding to surveys.

The results of the first and final selections can be checked on the Seoul city website under ‘Notices and Announcements,’ the Seoul Welfare Portal, and the Seoul Basic Income website’s ‘Notices’ section.

Lee Su-yeon, Welfare Planning Officer, said, “Seoul is designing and promoting the Basic Income pilot project as a new model for a social safety net to address income polarization and welfare blind spots,” and added, “We hope citizens will take interest and actively participate in recruiting households for Phase 2.”

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