Korea Forest Service "Voucher Support for Vulnerable Groups Using Wood Pellets"

Vulnerable groups using wood pellets as a heating energy source in winter will now be able to receive support through the ‘Energy Use Voucher’.

According to the Korea Forest Service on the 3rd, the Energy Use Voucher is a system by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy that provides essential energy purchase (cooling and heating) costs to energy-disadvantaged groups in the form of vouchers.

The supported energy sources include six types: electricity, city gas, district heating, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), kerosene, and briquettes, and wood pellets have not been included in the support targets until now.

However, recently the Korea Forest Service, after consultations with related ministries, has enabled vulnerable groups such as basic livelihood security households using wood pellets to be included as exceptions eligible for the Energy Use Voucher.

The exception payment is a refundable voucher that can be received in cash, and eligible households can submit wood pellet purchase receipts to the relevant local government to receive a cash refund.

According to last year’s survey on wood pellet usage, about 10,000 households nationwide use wood pellet boilers. The Korea Forest Service expects these households to reduce their heating cost burden through the newly introduced support system (exception payment).

Nam Sung-hyun, Administrator of the Korea Forest Service, said, “The ‘Energy Use Voucher exception payment’ for vulnerable groups using wood pellets is a task directly related to stabilizing people’s livelihoods,” adding, “The Korea Forest Service will continue to actively promote the changed support policy through close cooperation with local governments to ensure that eligible households can evenly receive benefits.”

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