Seoul City Finalizes 1,100 Households for Phase 2 of Future-Oriented Welfare Model 'Ansim Sodeuk'

The Seoul Guaranteed Income pilot project, which marks its first anniversary this month, has completed the selection of 1,100 households for its second phase.

Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon is making an announcement about the 'Seoul Basic Income Pilot Project' at the Seoul City Hall briefing room on February 22, last year. Photo by Kang Jin-hyung aymsdream@

According to Seoul City on the 4th, 76,051 households applied for the second phase of the Guaranteed Income pilot project recruitment, which was held for 17 days starting January 25. This number is about 70 times the number of households finally selected. After income and asset investigations and a three-stage selection process, the city finalized 1,100 supported households on the 27th of last month.

Guaranteed Income is an income security model designed to support households earning 85% or less of the median income by providing half of the difference between the median income and the household income, concentrating more benefits on vulnerable groups with lower incomes. It is also an experimental income security policy aimed at finding new solutions to income polarization and welfare blind spots. The project will run for five years until 2026.

Last year, 500 households earning 50% or less of the median income were selected, and the experiment began with the first payment in July of the same year. This year, the target was expanded to households earning up to 85% of the median income. Accordingly, 600 households earning between 50% and 85% of the median income, who had previously been excluded from welfare benefits, were newly included as beneficiaries.

Among the 1,100 households selected for support, 19.3% are recipients of the Basic Livelihood Security Program, and 4.5% receive unemployment benefits. By household size, single-person households accounted for the largest share at 40.0%, and by age group, those aged 40 to 64 made up half.

By household size, single-person households accounted for 40%, and by age, those aged 40 to 64 (50%) were the largest group. By gender of the household head, males made up 51% (566 people) and females 49% (534 people). By district, Eunpyeong-gu had the highest number with 75 households (6.8%), followed by Gangseo-gu (73 households, 6.6%) and Nowon-gu (68 households, 6.2%).

The 1,100 households selected this time will receive Guaranteed Income support for two years starting this month and will participate in surveys to verify the effectiveness of the Guaranteed Income until 2026. Additionally, the city will finalize a comparison group that will not receive Guaranteed Income benefits in July. This group, twice the size of the supported households, will participate in the study alongside the supported households until 2026. However, they cannot receive overlapping support with current cash welfare benefits such as livelihood and housing benefits, basic pensions, Seoul-type Basic Livelihood Security, Seoul-type Housing Vouchers, youth allowances, or youth monthly rent.

On the same day at 2 p.m., Seoul City held a signing ceremony with the final selected households at the Seoul City Hall Multipurpose Hall. Mayor Oh said, "Guaranteed Income is a new welfare model for transitioning to a better life through the ladder of social mobility," adding, "We expect it to be established as income support welfare with enthusiastic responses from participants, applicants, and experts alike."

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