From Application to Payment in as Fast as 2 Weeks, Up to 3 Weeks at Most: The Fastest Among Seoul's Autonomous Districts
[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jong-il] Seongdong-gu has been found to provide COVID-19 living support funds from application to payment within a maximum of three weeks, making it the fastest among Seoul's autonomous districts.
While many local governments nationwide fail to meet the government guideline of paying living support funds for hospitalized or quarantined individuals within 30 days due to a shortage of personnel handling civil complaints amid the surge in cumulative confirmed cases, the district has enabled support as quickly as two weeks and within a maximum of three weeks from application receipt to payment.
In particular, the number of households applying for Seongdong-gu living support funds, which was about 4,200 households in January and February this year, surged 8.5 times to approximately 35,000 households within two months due to the increase in confirmed cases following the spread of the Omicron variant, prompting efforts to accelerate the payment of living support funds.
Accordingly, the district deployed all welfare team staff in each neighborhood to handle living support fund applications and hired and assigned temporary workers across all neighborhoods to improve work efficiency.
Additionally, the district used its own budget secured through a supplementary budget before the national and city subsidies were granted to provide advance support, preventing any gaps in living support fund payments and ensuring prompt assistance.
The living support funds, provided under the Infectious Disease Prevention and Management Act, are targeted at residents who have received hospitalization or quarantine notices due to COVID-19.
The support amount is fixed at 100,000 KRW per hospitalized or quarantined individual within a household registered in the resident registration as of March 16, and 150,000 KRW for two or more individuals.
The application period is within three months from the quarantine release date, and applications can be submitted by visiting the local neighborhood community center or through non-face-to-face methods such as fax or email by referring to each neighborhood’s homepage.
From the beginning of this year to April, 32,691 households (10.43335 billion KRW) have been supported, which is about three times more than the entire 10,907 households (8.94561 billion KRW) supported last year. The district plans to actively support residents' return to daily life with various policies that match the timing and residents' needs, such as the prompt payment of living support funds.
Following the shift to home treatment for confirmed cases, the district operates a ‘24-hour call center exclusively for general management groups’ and has been providing ‘Recovery Support Packages’ containing quarantine supplies and daily necessities to Seongdong-gu residents undergoing home treatment after testing positive for COVID-19 since mid-March.
Moreover, by operating a ‘COVID-19 Aftereffects Clinic,’ the district monitors the health of residents struggling with long COVID, committing to overcoming COVID-19 and doing its best until residents fully return to their daily lives.
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