Emergency Disaster Relief Fund, Usable from Today Regardless of Moving Area

Usage Area Change Available from the 4th
Disaster Relief Fund Application via Card Until the 5th

[Asia Economy Reporter Ki Ha-young] From the 4th, it will be possible to change the usage area of the Emergency Disaster Relief Fund. This is expected to resolve the difficulties faced by those who experienced inconvenience in using the fund due to moving.

According to the Ministry of the Interior and Safety and the card industry on the 4th, from this day, if you received the Emergency Disaster Relief Fund via credit or debit card, you can change the usage area through the card company's website or call center. Each card company will provide the related service from business hours on this day through system improvements.

Originally, the Emergency Disaster Relief Fund could only be used in the city or province where the head of the household's resident registration address was located as of March 29, which caused controversy. For example, even if a person who lived in Seoul moved to Busan after March 29, the Emergency Disaster Relief Fund could only be used in Seoul, not Busan. As inquiries about changing the usage area surged, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety began to supplement the system.

Changing the usage area is possible until August 30, one day before the end of the fund usage period. Even if you move multiple times, you can change the usage area to the metropolitan local government (city or province) of the resident registration address regardless of the number of times.

Applications for the disaster relief fund using credit or debit cards will end at 11:30 PM on the 5th. After the 5th, applications can be made at the Eup/Myeon/Dong community service centers using prepaid cards and local love gift certificates. Donation corrections are also possible until 11:30 PM on the 5th, the deadline for disaster relief fund applications using cards. The usage period for the Emergency Disaster Relief Fund is until August 31. Any unused balance after that will be forfeited and reclaimed by the national treasury, so refunds are not possible.

Card companies will continue to operate disaster relief fund-related pages even after the application period ends on the 5th. An industry official said, "Even after the disaster relief fund application ends, we plan to continuously provide information on usage area changes, fund usage details, and available affiliated stores through the website and call center."

Meanwhile, according to the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, from the start of the Emergency Disaster Relief Fund application on the 11th until the 3rd, 21.52 million households, which is 99.1% of the total 21.71 million eligible households, applied for the disaster relief fund. The total application amount is 13.5428 trillion won. Among them, households that applied via credit or debit card charging accounted for 67.2% of the total.