Gumi-si Welfare Registered Mail Identifies 75 At-Risk Households Over 3 Months

Collaboration Between City and Post Office Strengthens Welfare Safety Net Through In-Person Confirmation by Delivery Workers

Gumi City in Gyeongbuk is seeing significant effectiveness in identifying vulnerable households through its welfare registered mail service.

Welfare Registered Mail Service Agreement.

Since starting the welfare registered mail service in April, the city has identified 75 vulnerable households through 300 welfare registered mails over three months, linking them to public benefits such as basic living subsidies and private essential goods support.

This project is a collaboration between the city and the post office, where postal workers deliver registered mail containing welfare information to households predicted to be vulnerable. They then conduct face-to-face checks on actual living conditions and relay this information back to local governments to support the discovery of vulnerable households.

Utilizing postal workers who are familiar with neighborhood conditions makes it easier to quickly identify target recipients and connect them to relevant systems. The information collected by postal workers through direct observation of recipients’ health and living environments serves as important reference data to discover vulnerable households in welfare blind spots and provide appropriate support.

Postal worker Lee Sang-heon from Gumi Post Office discovered a large accumulation of mail, including seizure notices, in the mailbox of Mr. Lee in Hyeonggok-dong while delivering the May welfare registered mail. He immediately completed a checklist and reported it to the city.

The Welfare Policy Division and Hyeonggok 2-dong Administrative Welfare Center promptly conducted a consultation with the vulnerable household and confirmed that the elderly person (81 years old) living alone was in a medical crisis due to no income and excessive hospital expenses. They guided and assisted with the application for basic living subsidies.

Park Eun-sook, Logistics Manager at Gumi Post Office, said, “We were initially concerned that postal workers’ workload might increase, but now many postal workers feel a sense of fulfillment because they can bring hope and comfort to neighbors. Additionally, the Post Office Public Interest Foundation plans to continue participating in local welfare by providing essential goods to some welfare registered mail recipients during summer and winter seasons.”

Ahn Jin-hee, Director of the Welfare Policy Division, stated, “The welfare registered mail service greatly helps in proactively identifying vulnerable families and preventing crises in advance. The city will strengthen the welfare safety net by swiftly discovering and supporting vulnerable households through various initiatives.”

The city has visited and counseled about 1,500 identified individuals monthly using honorary social welfare officers and the welfare blind spot discovery system, supporting around 700 hidden vulnerable households. It is making every effort to create a city with zero welfare blind spots.

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