Seoul City, Regulatory Repeal Nos. 7 and 8... Abolition of Age and Care Limits for Seoul Jobs

Accepting Proposals from the Citizens' Grand Debate... Direct Impact on Daily Life
Focus on Economic Revitalization... Abolishing Age Limit for Seoul Attractive Jobs
Abolishing Service-Specific Limits for 'Care SOS'... Increasing Usage Cap

The Seoul Metropolitan Government is completely abolishing the upper age limit for participation in the Seoul Attractive Jobs program for middle-aged and older adults. This is part of Seoul's additional deregulation measures, responding to citizen requests raised at the public debate chaired by Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon. The service-specific upper limits for 'Care SOS,' which can be used in urgent situations, will also be removed.

On the 21st, Seoul announced these deregulation measures, numbered 7 and 8, aimed at significantly reducing citizen inconveniences, and stated that immediate implementation will begin. This comes just five days after the announcement of deregulation measures 5 (limited permission for commercial activities in parks) and 6 (introduction of three-dimensional park system) on the 16th, and these new measures are expected to bring immediate changes directly affecting citizens' daily lives.

Deregulation measure 7 was enacted following a citizen proposal at the 'Deregulation to Revive Livelihoods Public Debate' on the 14th, requesting the increase of the upper age limit for participation in Seoul Attractive Jobs for middle-aged and older adults from the current 65 to 67 years.

Seoul Attractive Jobs is Seoul's representative stepping-stone job program that helps participants enhance their employment capabilities through work experience and job training. Last year, a total of 1,019 middle-aged and older adults participated. However, the age limit was set between 40 and under 65, which has acted as a barrier for older adults seeking employment. The private-type Attractive Jobs program, which begins recruitment in March, will immediately apply the removal of the upper age limit, and the public-type Attractive Jobs program, which started recruiting participants from early January and has already completed or is in progress, will apply this change when additional vacancies or demand arise.

'Care SOS' will also be restructured. As deregulation measure 8, the main content is the removal of service-specific upper limits for 'Care SOS,' which provides urgent and temporary assistance. Seoul's 'Care SOS' service is a program where care managers visit citizens who are in care blind spots despite existing welfare systems and provide customized care services.

Currently, 'Care SOS' consists of five services: ▲housing convenience ▲temporary home care ▲short-term facilities ▲accompaniment support ▲meal delivery. Even if an individual has remaining annual usage funds (1.6 million KRW), once the service-specific usage limit is exhausted, they could no longer receive further assistance. With this measure, Seoul expects that users will be able to select the services they need within their total individual usage limit, preventing care gaps and enabling rapid response in emergencies. Through this restructuring, Seoul has also raised the annual usage amount per person, which had been frozen for the past three years, from 1.6 million KRW to 1.8 million KRW, an increase of 200,000 KRW.

A Seoul city official said, "The additionally announced deregulation measures 7 and 8 are directly related to citizens' lives. While lifting prohibitive regulations is necessary, it is also important to reduce citizen inconveniences and enhance benefits. We will improve citizens' quality of life through the immediate activation of these deregulation measures."

Seoul City 'Care SOS' Service Annual Usage Limit Abolition Proposal. Provided by Seoul City

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