3,868 Households Supported by Child Support Advance Payment System... On-Site Roundtable Held

Ministry of Gender Equality and Family to Hold Roundtable with Policy Recipients
Discussion to Focus on Policy Improvements and Feedback
54.5 Billion Won in Child Support Advanced; Recovery to Begin Next Year

The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family will directly listen to the opinions of individuals who have used the child support advance payment service and discuss matters necessary for improving the system. So far, the ministry has supported more than 3,800 households through the child support advance payment program.

On December 16, the ministry will hold a roundtable presided over by Vice Minister Jeong Goo-chang to share opinions on changes since the implementation of the system, the effectiveness of improvements, and areas that need further supplementation. Participants will include recipients of the child support advance payment, representatives from the Korean Women's Development Institute, and officials from the Child Support Enforcement Agency.

Yonhap News Agency

The child support advance payment system is a policy in which the government provides child support in advance to single-parent families and others who have not received child support, and later recovers the amount from the non-custodial parent (the child support debtor). After its initial launch in July this year, the application requirements were relaxed in September to address blind spots in the system. Previously, only those who had not received any child support for the previous three months could apply, but now, applications are also accepted if the average monthly child support received during the previous three months is less than the advance payment amount.

From July this year through the end of last month, 5,963 households applied for the child support advance payment. Of these, 3,868 households, covering 6,129 minor children, were approved for the advance payment, and a total of approximately 5.45 billion won was disbursed.

Among the households approved for the advance payment, 87.7% (3,392) of the child support creditors were mothers, while 12.2% (471) were fathers.

Among the minor children approved for the advance payment, those aged 13 to 18 (middle and high school age) accounted for the largest share at 2,937 (47.9%). This was followed by 2,581 children aged 7 to 12 (42.1%), and 611 children aged 0 to 6 (10.0%).

After the advance payment was made, child support debtors in 80 households paid more than 1 million won in child support, and among these, 9 households paid more than 10 million won.

This roundtable will share cases such as: ▲ recipients who received the advance payment immediately after the system's implementation and have received stable support for five months ▲ cases where the relaxation of requirements enabled recipients to receive advance payment even when the non-custodial parent made small payments ▲ cases where overdue child support was recovered from the debtor after the advance payment was approved.

In addition, the roundtable will broadly discuss on-site opinions, such as difficulties in preparing application documents for the advance payment, the need to strengthen child support claim enforcement, and the necessity of enhanced legal support.

The process of recovering advance payments from debtors who have failed to pay child support will begin in January next year. The Child Support Enforcement Agency will notify and urge child support debtors to pay the advance payment, and if they do not comply, the ministry will obtain approval from the Minister of Gender Equality and Family to collect the payment in accordance with national tax enforcement procedures.

Minister Won Min-kyung of the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family stated, "We will continue to reflect on-site feedback so that the child support advance payment system can provide practical help for the stable upbringing of children," and added, "We will do our utmost to further strengthen the effectiveness of sanctions against child support non-payers, as well as supplement the system to ensure that single-parent families can raise their children with peace of mind."

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