Gyeonggi-do Temporarily Expands Emergency Welfare Support Recipients

[Asia Economy (Suwon) = Reporter Lee Young-gyu] Gyeonggi Province will temporarily strengthen support for residents in crisis living in welfare blind spots due to COVID-19 and other reasons until the end of this year.

To this end, the province decided to expand the eligibility for the Gyeonggi Province-type Emergency Welfare System from households with income below 90% (4-person household 기준 4.27 million KRW) to those below 100% of the median income (4-person household 기준 4.75 million KRW).

Additionally, to support small business owners, the clause for small business owners experiencing a sales decrease of 50% or more, which is one of the crisis household criteria, has been relaxed to those with a sales decrease of 30% or more.

This is the third relaxation of criteria this year. In April, the province implemented the second relaxation by expanding the property 기준 for crisis households from 242 million KRW to 324 million KRW.

The revised Gyeonggi Province-type Emergency Welfare support 대상 for households in livelihood crisis includes ▲ when the main income earner dies, runs away, goes missing, or is detained making livelihood difficult ▲ when suffering from a serious illness or injury ▲ households with income loss for more than one month even after losing employment insurance benefits ▲ small business owners with a sales decrease of 30% or less, etc.

Households can receive monthly living expenses support of 1.23 million KRW based on a 4-person household, and if suffering from a serious illness, hospitalization expenses up to 5 million KRW can be supported.

Park No-geuk, Director of Welfare Policy at the province, emphasized, "Through this expansion of the Gyeonggi Province-type Emergency Welfare, we will do our best to ensure that residents in crisis who are in welfare blind spots due to COVID-19 and other reasons are not neglected and receive necessary support in a timely manner."

Applications for emergency welfare support can be made at the administrative welfare centers in the resident registration address's eup, myeon, or dong, or through the Gyeonggi Province Call Center (031-120).