Ulsan City Leads Efforts to Eliminate Welfare Blind Spots

Expansion of Basic Living Allowance in 2020 추진

Ulsan City Hall exterior view. (Photo by Ulsan City)

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Yoon Yoseop] Ulsan City is actively working to reduce welfare blind spots where people do not receive basic living security livelihood benefits and medical benefits, in line with the government's plan to expand basic living benefits.

On the 28th, Ulsan City announced that it will relax the criteria for obligated supporters, not applying them to households with severely disabled beneficiaries, and reduce the support cost, which was previously imposed up to 30% of the recognized income depending on the conditions of obligated supporter households, to 10%.

Accordingly, it is expected that the difficulties in beneficiary determination due to obligated supporters will be significantly resolved.

The basic property deduction will be expanded from 54 million KRW to 69 million KRW, and the monthly benefit will increase by 2.94% (15,000 KRW per month for a single-person household).

For livelihood benefit recipients aged 25 to 64, 70% of earned income from work or business will be reflected, and 30% will be deducted, so recipients with a certain amount of income will receive more livelihood benefits than last year (up to 158,000 KRW per month for a single-person household).

Regarding medical benefits, the coverage will be expanded to include spinal MRI, uterine and ovarian ultrasound, and diabetes management devices. Additionally, a patient registration system for cleft lip and palate patients and a special calculation system for severe patients with rare or chromosomal abnormalities will be newly established to reduce medical expenses for vulnerable groups.

Ulsan City plans to open a metropolitan self-support center next month to develop and connect jobs suitable for local conditions, doubling the number of self-support project jobs from about 500 to 1,000.

Furthermore, to help vulnerable groups participate in job projects and plan a stable future, the city will promote asset formation support projects together. For beneficiaries with earned income, near-poor groups, and youth, if they save part of the amount received from participating in jobs (50,000 to 100,000 KRW per month for three years), the city will actively support their independence and self-support by matching the saved amount or providing incentives.

Yuk Woncheol, Director of Welfare Population Policy Division of Ulsan City, said, “We hope citizens can make good use of the basic living security system to alleviate economic difficulties.”