Incheon City Reduces Family Care Burden...Significantly Expands Part-Time Childcare

Incheon City will significantly increase the number of hourly childcare classes from the current 54 to 110 starting this month.

Hourly childcare is a childcare service where parents who need temporary care can use childcare services on an hourly basis at designated institutions and pay childcare fees accordingly.

The institutions providing hourly childcare in Incheon currently have 39 independent classes and 71 integrated classes. Independent classes care only for children in hourly childcare, while integrated classes operate the unfilled spots in regular childcare classes as hourly childcare.

The cumulative number of uses so far is 13,698 cases, with a total usage time of 58,520 hours, already exceeding last year's performance (12,568 cases, 53,612 hours). This is analyzed to be due to the expansion of institutions providing hourly childcare, allowing more families to use the service.

Reservations can be made through the pregnancy and childcare comprehensive portal "I Sarang" website. Usage hours are from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays for independent classes, and from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekdays for integrated classes.

Families receiving home childcare allowance and parental benefits can use the service up to 60 hours per month at a rate of 2,000 KRW per hour.

An official from Incheon City stated, "We will expand hourly childcare services to respond to urgent care demands and reduce the burden on home childcare."

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