Ministry of SMEs and Startups to Support Maternity Benefits for Female Entrepreneurs... Piloting Customized Notification Service

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups announced on March 9 that it will pilot a "customized policy notification service" based on a database (DB) of approximately 1.34 million small business owners.

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The ministry possesses a database of small business owners accumulated through the application and implementation processes of policy funds and various support programs. This new service is distinguished by providing customized information tailored to each recipient’s business type, size, and history, utilizing data formed in the course of executing these policies.

Previously, policy information for small business owners was delivered mainly through public announcements, making it difficult for busy small business owners to review the details thoroughly. In response, the ministry has developed a proactive notification service that uses the small business owner database-previously used only for business management-to directly inform policy recipients in advance.

This service will target approximately 810,000 subscribers who have agreed to receive policy information promotions among those registered in the "Small Business Owner 24" database. Information on support programs, tailored to policy eligibility requirements and business characteristics, will be sent via text message or KakaoTalk. Through this, the ministry aims to compensate for situations where business owners miss important announcements and to ensure that information is delivered in a demand-driven manner.

The first customized policy notification will cover the Ministry of Employment and Labor’s "Maternity Benefit Support for Non-Employment Insurance Participants," a program that supports individual female entrepreneurs after childbirth. This program provides a total of 1.5 million won in maternity benefits to women who are engaged in income-generating activities but are not covered by employment insurance and therefore cannot receive maternity leave benefits. Based on the Small Business Owner 24 database, around 100,000 individual female entrepreneurs who have agreed to receive policy information promotions will be targeted for customized notifications on March 12.

Starting with this pilot service, the ministry plans to gradually expand the provision of support program information for each policy target group, such as women, young people, and small manufacturers. The ministry will also connect and provide information not only on its own programs but also on small business support programs from all central government agencies and local governments, thereby enhancing government-wide access to small business policy information.

Minister Han Seongsook stated, "We will fundamentally transform our policy delivery system so that no one misses out on support opportunities due to lack of information. By introducing an AlimTalk service based on KakaoTalk, the platform most used by small business owners, we will enhance accessibility to policy information and proactively provide customized information that meticulously reflects the characteristics of each recipient and situation, based on the ministry’s accumulated small business owner database."

She added, "This will serve as a starting point for advancing into an integrated guidance system that organically connects not only the ministry’s programs but also small business support projects from all ministries and local governments."

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