Seoul City Receives 34,000 Applications for 'Safe Income Pilot Project'... Competition Rate 67.6 to 1

First 5,000 Households Selected... Final 500 Households to Be Chosen After Income, Property, and Baseline Surveys in May-June

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced on the 13th that it will select the first 5,000 households for the ‘Safe Income Pilot Project’ and announce the results on the 14th. From March 28 to April 8, Seoul recruited participating households online and via call centers for 12 days, targeting Seoul citizens with incomes below 50% of the median income, and about 34,000 households applied.

The Safe Income Pilot Project is a program that will select a final 500 households by July and provide welfare benefits for three years. Through this recruitment of participating households, about 34,000 households applied, which is approximately 68 times the size of the support group. Based on household size, single-person households had the highest number of applications with 16,940 cases (50.1%), and by age group, those aged 40-64 had the most applications with 17,092 cases (50.6%).

By district, Gwanak-gu had 2,550 applications (7.5%), Gangseo-gu 2,270 (6.7%), and Eunpyeong-gu 2,095 (6.2%), with the number of households and the proportion of basic livelihood security recipients being similar across districts. Of the applying households, 3,211 (9.5%) applied via phone, with particularly many inquiries and applications from the elderly.

Going forward, Seoul will scientifically select the final 500 support households by July through three rounds of sampling. The first selection of 5,000 households announced this time is an intermediate step to narrow down the support group. After income and property investigations in May and June, 1,800 households will be selected in the second round, and by the end of June, the final 500 households (and more than 1,000 comparison group households) will be confirmed.

The 5,000 households selected in the first round must visit their local community service center based on their resident registration address from April 18 to 27 for eight days to submit four types of documents. Although document submission and application are based on the head of household, if a household member must apply on their behalf, they can do so by bringing the required documents. Seoul will use the submitted documents and the Happy e-Um (Social Welfare Integrated Management Network) to conduct income and property investigations over two months, selecting households that meet the participation criteria of the Safe Income Pilot Project: those with incomes below 50% of the median income and property valued below 326 million KRW.

Additionally, in May, after income and property investigations, 1,800 households will be randomly selected from the 5,000 first-round households based on the age of the head of household and number of household members using statistical methods. These households will be individually contacted to conduct a preliminary survey that forms the basis of the research. Households that do not participate in the preliminary survey will not be eligible for final selection into the support group, so attention is required.

Seoul will finalize the selection of 500 support households from the 1,800 second-round households in July. These households will receive Safe Income support for three years and participate in the pilot project. The first payment date is July 11, and each month, half of the difference between 85% of the median income and the household income will be provided. For example, a four-person household with no income will receive 2.17 million KRW per month.

Meanwhile, Seoul plans to conduct income security research for a total of five years, including the three-year support period. From the beginning, many domestic and international scholars from welfare, economics, and social sciences interested in the pilot project will participate in the research, and a forum will be held to discuss the new system globally, aiming to promote it as a world-class income experiment.

Ha Young-tae, Director of Welfare Policy at Seoul City, said, “As this is an income security policy experiment to prepare a future welfare model for Seoul citizens, each selection process will be conducted transparently and fairly,” adding, “We ask for your great interest so that the Safe Income Pilot Project can develop into the most effective policy to discover welfare blind spots and guarantee a basic life for all citizens.”