Relaxation of Car Asset Criteria for Basic Livelihood Security Recipients Starting Next Year

A 43-year-old Mr. A, living in a multi-family row house in Seoul with a jeonse (lease deposit of 90 million KRW), is part of a five-person household consisting of his wife and three children (aged 11, 9, and 5). His wife is a full-time homemaker raising the children, while Mr. A works as a day laborer earning 1.8 million KRW per month. The situation is difficult for a family of five to sustain their living. Recently, they applied for livelihood benefits, but the value of their 2011 Carnival (9-seater, 2151cc, worth 6 million KRW) was fully converted into monthly income, resulting in an assessed recognized income of 7.26 million KRW. Consequently, this exceeded the selection criterion of 1.9 million KRW for a five-person household, and they were unable to receive livelihood benefits.

However, starting next year, Mr. A’s family will be eligible to receive livelihood benefits. This is because the revised criteria for multi-person (6 or more) and multi-child (3 or more) households apply a conversion rate of only 4.17% of the car’s value as monthly income for vehicles under 2500cc. Accordingly, the recognized income for Mr. A’s household will decrease from 7.26 million KRW to 1.51 million KRW, making it possible to receive approximately 630,000 KRW in livelihood benefits.

The general property conversion rate (4.17% per month) applied to passenger and van vehicles for multi-person (6 or more) and multi-child (3 or more) beneficiary households will be relaxed. The passenger car standard will change from under 1600cc to under 2500cc, and the van standard will change from under 1000cc to small or less.

On the 22nd, the Ministry of Health and Welfare announced the administrative notice of a revision to the related public notice to relax the automobile property standards for recipients of the National Basic Livelihood Security System’s livelihood and medical benefits. To encourage work incentives, one work-use vehicle will be excluded from property value calculation, and the standard for passenger cars used for work will be changed from under 1600cc to under 2000cc. As a result, the amount of livelihood benefits paid to households owning vehicles is expected to increase, and the number of households newly receiving benefits is also expected to rise.

This revision to the public notice is based on the "3rd Comprehensive Plan for Basic Livelihood Security (2024?2026)," which includes various system improvement tasks beyond relaxing automobile property standards. The Ministry of Health and Welfare plans to actively promote various system improvements starting next year, including raising the selection criteria for livelihood and housing benefits, relaxing the medical benefit support obligation criteria, expanding earned income deductions for youth, and expanding education benefits.

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