'Proactive Response to High Inflation and Energy Crisis': Siheung City Launches Second Phase of Welfare Blind Spot Identification

Siheung City in Gyeonggi Province announced that, due to concerns over a potential increase in households at risk caused by prolonged instability in the Middle East and resulting high inflation, it will proactively identify and support vulnerable groups who are excluded from the social safety net from April 16 to May 29.

View of Siheung City Hall. Provided by Siheung City

The city plans to strengthen the welfare safety net so that households facing increasing economic hardship are not left out of the system, while also promoting measures to stabilize the local economy in connection with the currently operating “Task Force for Emergency Response to the Middle East Situation.”

Previously, from January to March, the city carried out the first phase of its welfare blind spot identification survey and discovered 1,990 at-risk households, providing customized services such as basic livelihood security, integrated case management, and linkage to private sector support to 1,907 of those cases.

During this second intensive identification period, the city aims to discover vulnerable households experiencing difficulties such as loss of employment insurance, job loss, overdue utility fees, and financial delinquency. It will also identify those who qualify for basic living benefits due to low recognized income, as well as those among the near-poor who are eligible to apply for housing or educational assistance, thereby working to protect the rights of vulnerable groups.

Key initiatives include: ▲ Rapidly identifying households showing signs of crisis using artificial intelligence (AI) and big data, and linking them to emergency welfare support; ▲ Preventing and managing households at risk of isolation or lonely deaths; and ▲ Strengthening protection and integrated care services for vulnerable households by life stage, such as seniors, people with disabilities, and children. In addition, the city plans to provide tailored welfare services such as ▲ emergency welfare support and ▲ support for households facing housing insecurity.

Shim Yunsik, Director of the Welfare Bureau, stated, “As economic hardship intensifies due to high inflation and rising energy prices, we will operate an even more thorough system for identifying and supporting households in crisis that fall outside the institutional safety net,” and added, “We will prioritize the stability of people’s livelihoods and do our utmost to protect at-risk households.”

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