Discovering Vulnerable Households Through Future Office-tel Management Fee Arrears Information

by Byun Seonjin

Published 20 Dec.2023 19:42(KST)

From now on, information about households that have fallen behind on management fees in officetels can be used to identify vulnerable households. This is intended to closely fill the gaps in welfare blind spots.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare announced on the 20th that 21 bills, including the amendment to the "Act on the Use and Provision of Social Security Benefits and the Discovery of Beneficiaries," which contains this content, have passed the plenary session of the National Assembly.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare obtains 44 types of crisis information, such as power and water outages, every two months to identify households suspected of welfare crises. However, officetels are not included in multi-unit housing, so even if residents fall behind on management fees for a certain period, the management office was not obligated to notify the Ministry of Health and Welfare of the delinquency. With the passage of this bill, information on households delinquent in management fees in 'multi-unit buildings' such as officetels will also be included in the crisis information collected by the Ministry of Health and Welfare.

Additionally, the Maternal and Child Health Act, which was passed together, includes provisions allowing the state and local governments to support the costs of freezing reproductive cells in cases where permanent infertility is expected due to medical reasons such as ovary or testicle removal. Furthermore, the Special Adoption Act newly establishes regulations to punish those who provide or accept monetary benefits in exchange for adoption consent, and the amended Child Welfare Act adds health checkup records for children under six years old and records of essential vaccinations to the information used in the 'e-Child Happiness Support Project' for identifying children at risk of abuse.