Gangdong-gu, One-Stop Support for Electricity Bill Reduction for Vulnerable Groups

To allow simultaneous reception at the stage of selecting new vulnerable groups... Application procedure drastically improved

Born from the idea of a district office employee who focused on the inconvenience of civil petitioners, realized through a business agreement with KEPCO in the region

Gangdong-gu (Mayor Lee Suhee) announced that it has drastically improved the application procedure for electricity bill discounts provided to vulnerable residents in the district, launching a one-stop support system that processes everything at once without separate applications from residents.

Until now, vulnerable residents had to visit or call Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) directly to confirm their customer number and then apply for the discount service to receive electricity bill reductions. If direct application was difficult, they could apply at the community service center or through the ‘Bokjiro’ website, but the process of verifying the customer number or proving vulnerability was complicated, causing delays in processing.

However, with this one-stop support, residents no longer need to apply separately to KEPCO. When newly applying as a vulnerable group at the community service center, residents only need to agree to the electricity bill discount, and the district office will verify the selection and registration status and submit a bulk application to the KEPCO Gangdong-Songpa branch.

Once confirmed as eligible for the vulnerable group electricity discount, residents can receive differential discounts on their electricity bills according to their welfare qualifications. Basic livelihood security recipients and persons with disabilities receive up to 16,000 KRW per month, while the near-poverty group receives up to 8,000 KRW per month. During the summer months (June to August), when electricity demand is expected to be high due to cooling costs, the discount limits increase to up to 20,000 KRW per month for basic livelihood security recipients and persons with disabilities, and up to 10,000 KRW for the near-poverty group.

Notably, this one-stop electricity bill discount support project was born from the idea of a district office employee. In February, during an idea contest held for district office employees, the proposal to improve the procedure so that the electricity bill discount service could be applied for at once from the vulnerable group selection stage was selected as the best policy suggestion, and through a business agreement with KEPCO Gangdong-Songpa branch, it was realized as a project.

Lee Suhee, Mayor of Gangdong-gu, said, “We are working together with our employees to improve the inconveniences and difficulties of residents and reduce welfare blind spots,” adding, “We will continue to cooperate with the local community and public institutions in the region to provide welfare that residents can feel in their daily lives.”

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