40,000 Consultations for Single-Parent Families Last Year... Focus on Policy, Pregnancy, and Childbirth

KHFC Announces 2025 Consultation Hotline Results on March 26
Policy, Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Childcare Were the Main Topics Among 40,244 Cases
"Highlights the Need for Multilayered Support for Single-Parent Families"

Last year, consultations conducted for single-parent families showed that inquiries related to "policy" and "childcare" accounted for the largest proportion.

On March 26, the Korea Healthy Family Support Center (KHFC) announced that a total of 40,244 consultations had been conducted through the "2025 Consultation Hotline for Single-Parent Families."

The single-parent consultation on the family counseling hotline serves as a channel for accessing policy information and as an initial intervention tool for vulnerable groups. It also provides rights protection, policy linkage, crisis response, and emotional support.

By user type, married single parents accounted for 58.0% (23,360 cases), single mothers and fathers for 19.5% (7,847 cases), and others (such as institutions) for 22.5% (9,037 cases). By topic, policy-related consultations made up the largest share at 58.8% of the total, followed by consultations on pregnancy, childbirth, legal issues, and housing, which comprised 21.6%.

According to an analysis of consultation topics by specific target group, single mothers and fathers (including adolescents) most frequently sought advice on pregnancy and childbirth (4,788 cases). Married single parents most often consulted about legal issues (2,735 cases), followed by housing (1,011 cases) and economic matters (593 cases).

KHFC explained, "This demonstrates the need for multilayered support for single-parent families, as complex issues such as pregnancy, childbirth, childcare, economic, and legal matters often arise simultaneously."

The single-parent family consultation hotline is operated as part of a project commissioned by the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family. Last year, the hotline number was changed to the family counseling hotline (1577-4206), and consultations for single mothers, fathers, and single-parent families are now offered on a continuous basis.

Going forward, KHFC plans to strengthen online consultation functions, such as through KakaoTalk channels, to improve accessibility for users and enhance the quality of its counseling services. In addition, the center aims to establish an integrated consultation system that combines telephone and online counseling by providing customized information and linking with other institutions.

Park Kuyeon, director of KHFC, stated, "These consultation results are an important indicator that illustrate the complex difficulties faced by single-parent families," adding, "We will strengthen the promotion of the counseling hotline so that it can develop into a public counseling service easily accessible to everyone."

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