Incheon Leading in Support and Consideration for Pregnant Women... "Priority Processing for Passport Services"

Postpartum Care Expense Support for Vulnerable Groups Started Last Month
Positive Response to 500,000 KRW Transportation Expense Support for Pregnant Women

Incheon City’s policies to consider and support pregnant women are drawing attention.

The city announced that starting from the 4th, it will operate a 'Priority Passport Service Window' to ensure that pregnant women visiting the civil service office within City Hall to apply for passports do not have to wait long.

When a pregnant woman visits, a passport guide assistant helps her apply for and receive her passport at the priority window without issuing a number ticket. The number of passport issuances in Incheon was as high as 340,479 in 2023 and recorded a total of 319,812 last year, resulting in long waiting times at the civil service counters.

The city installed signboards and promotional signs in the civil service office to make the priority window easily recognizable for pregnant women and completed training for passport guide assistants to provide smooth civil service. The city expects that operating the priority window will help spread social consensus on considering pregnant women in this ultra-low birthrate era.

Priority Service Desk Sign for Pregnant Women's Passport Applications. Provided by Incheon City

Additionally, to strengthen support for pregnant women, the city newly launched the 'Comfortable Mom Postpartum Care Expense Support Project' last month. This project provides vouchers worth 1.5 million KRW to vulnerable pregnant women who have difficulty using postpartum care services.

The support targets mothers who have been registered residents in Incheon for more than 12 months and are actually residing there, including basic livelihood security recipients, near-poverty class, persons with disabilities, North Korean defectors under protection, multicultural families with income below 65% of the median income, single-parent families, mothers with rare diseases, teenage couples, families with multiple births, and families with income below 60% of the median income.

The 1.5 million KRW postpartum care expense is provided as points in the local currency 'Incheon e-eum' and can be used for postpartum care centers, hospital bills, medicines, health supplements, yoga, and other postpartum health management costs for one year. Based on citizen surveys and research results showing high demand for postpartum care expense support, the city enabled mothers to selectively use various postpartum health management services beyond just postpartum care centers.

Incheon City’s 'Pregnant Women Transportation Expense Support Project,' introduced in April last year as a measure to address low birthrates, is also receiving positive responses.

This project, part of the '100 Million Plus i Dream' policy that supports children born in Incheon with a total of 100 million KRW until they turn 18, provides 500,000 KRW in transportation expenses as Incheon e-eum points (valid for one year) to pregnant women over 12 weeks of pregnancy and mothers within three months after childbirth. The points can be used for various transportation expenses such as taxi fares called via the Incheon e-eum app, private car fuel costs, and public transportation fares. The city expects about 27,500 pregnant women to benefit from this transportation expense support.

An official from Incheon City stated, "Following the provision of transportation expenses to help pregnant women move conveniently, we have expanded support to postpartum care expenses for vulnerable groups starting this year. We will continue to develop policies that reduce the economic burden of child-rearing and improve awareness to overcome the low birthrate."

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