Advance Child Support Payment System Until Adulthood... 200,000 KRW Monthly

Ministry of Gender Equality Discusses Support for Households Below 100% Median Income at Social Welfare Ministers' Meeting
Also Proposes Legal Amendments for 'Property Review Without Consent'

There is a plan to introduce a 'Child Support Advance Payment System' that provides advance child support payments to single-parent families who have child support claims but have not received payments, and then recovers the amount from the non-custodial parent.

On the 28th, the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family discussed the 'Plan to Promote the Child Support Advance Payment System for Single-Parent Families' at the 3rd Social Relations Ministers' Meeting held at the Government Seoul Office. The child support advance payment system is a system where the government first pays the unpaid child support to the single parent and later recovers it from the debtor.

The government decided to expand and convert the current 'Temporary Emergency Child Support Assistance' to introduce the child support advance payment system. The currently implemented temporary emergency assistance system provides 200,000 KRW per month for up to one year only to households with a median income of 75% or less whose minor children's welfare is at risk. The plan is to increase the support target and period so that in the future, households with a median income of 100% or less will receive support until their minor children reach adulthood (18 years old). The estimated number of eligible minor children is 19,000.

Additionally, to support smooth enforcement of child support payments, the Child Support Enforcement Agency will be converted from the Korea Healthy Family Promotion Agency into an independent corporation, enabling integrated support for advance payment screening, child support payment, and compulsory collection.

For parents who intentionally fail to pay child support, administrative sanctions and criminal penalties will be pursued, and advance payments will be promptly collected. Previously, sanctions such as driver's license suspension for child support debtors were only possible after detention orders, but going forward, conditions will be relaxed so that immediate measures can be taken after the prior stage of 'enforcement orders.'

The plan also includes measures to improve the current child support recovery rate, which remains at about 15.3%. After the start of advance payments, the law will be amended to allow income and asset investigations, including financial information, without the debtor's consent. Until now, if the debtor did not consent to financial information inquiries, confirmation had to be made through litigation, but there were issues where debtors disposed of assets or changed ownership before court decisions were made.

Measures will also be promoted to reduce the minimum prior explanation period for child support debtors subject to public disclosure from the current '3 months or more' to '10 days or more.'

The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family plans to review and supplement the system based on an analysis of its performance and recovery rate three years after implementation.

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