Gyeonggi-do Launches Initiative to Identify Vulnerable Households Using City Gas Meter Readers

Gyeonggi Provincial Government

Gyeonggi Province is launching an initiative to identify vulnerable households using city gas meter readers.

On the 25th, Gyeonggi Province announced that it will sign a written agreement with city gas companies Daeryun E&S, Yesco, and Coway Energy Service to participate in the ‘Gyeonggi-do Hope Bodumi’ program, aimed at discovering vulnerable households in welfare blind spots within the province.

There are approximately 500 gas meter readers working at these three companies.

The Gyeonggi-do Hope Bodumi program involves identifying residents in welfare blind spots and reporting them to emergency welfare hotlines, the emergency welfare call center (120-0), Gyeonggi Bok G Talk (KakaoTalk channel), and the emergency welfare call center website (gg.go.kr/welfarehotline).

Through Hope Bodumi, Gyeonggi Province plans to support neighbors in need who are reported via the emergency welfare crisis counseling hotline by providing assistance with living expenses, housing, and medical costs if they qualify for existing welfare programs such as basic livelihood security, lower-income classes, or emergency welfare. Even if they do not qualify for existing welfare programs, the province will connect them to private sponsored welfare services as needed to resolve their crisis situations.

To prevent a recurrence of the ‘Suwon Three Mothers Incident’ and to guarantee welfare rights for residents in crisis, Gyeonggi Province is currently promoting public-private cooperation efforts including: posting promotional materials and conducting education on discovering and reporting welfare blind spots through Buddhist, Catholic, and Christian organizations; producing and distributing promotional stickers to pharmacies in cooperation with the Gyeonggi Pharmaceutical Association; distributing promotional materials to licensed real estate agents via the Real Estate Agents Association; promoting through website banners, flyers, and KakaoTalk messages targeting members of the Small Business Federation; registering announcements on the Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education website and promoting via apps to parents; identifying and reporting cases during long-term care grade assessments by the National Health Insurance Service Incheon-Gyeonggi Regional Headquarters; discovering and reporting during electricity meter readings by Korea Electric Power Corporation’s Gyeonggi Headquarters and Northern Gyeonggi Headquarters; and identifying and reporting during social welfare work by social welfare institutions and organizations.

Park Geun-tae, Director of the Welfare Project Division of Gyeonggi Province, stated, "Although Gyeonggi Province has activated a support system for discovering welfare blind spots through cooperation with related organizations and groups, there are limits to what public organizations alone can achieve, so the interest and cooperation of neighbors is urgently needed," urging residents to actively cooperate.

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