Chungcheong Region Local Governments Roll Up Sleeves to Support Heating Costs for Vulnerable Groups

[Asia Economy (Daejeon) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] Local governments in the Chungcheong region have rolled up their sleeves to support heating costs for heating-vulnerable households and facilities. This is a self-help measure considering the recent cold wave that has added to the burden of heating costs, separate from government measures.

According to Daejeon City, Sejong City, and Chungnam Province on the 1st, each local government decided to urgently support heating costs for heating-vulnerable groups such as basic livelihood security recipients, social welfare facilities, and senior centers by utilizing disaster relief funds by local governments.

First, Daejeon will prepare 7.35 billion KRW from the disaster relief fund to support heating costs. Of this, 6.9 billion KRW will be paid to about 23,000 basic livelihood security recipient households. Each household will receive heating cost support of 150,000 KRW per month for two months, totaling 300,000 KRW.

Among social welfare facilities mainly used by vulnerable groups, 276 facilities not included in government support will receive up to 1 million KRW per month for two months depending on the size of the facility. The budget allocated for these facilities is a total of 208 million KRW.

In addition, the city plans to provide additional support of 10 million KRW per month for two months, totaling 170 million KRW, to 843 senior centers designated as heatwave and cold wave evacuation facilities, in addition to the existing heating cost support project.

Sejong City Mayor Choi Min-ho held a briefing the day before and directly announced a special heating cost support plan for vulnerable groups and social welfare facilities.

Like Daejeon, the city has prepared a heating cost support budget of 1.589 billion KRW from the disaster relief fund. The budget will be used to support 1.204 billion KRW for heating-vulnerable groups and 385 million KRW for social welfare facilities.

Through this, 4,965 basic livelihood security recipient households and 1,056 near-poverty households will receive 200,000 KRW per household (special heating cost for January and February) within this month. Also, 962 social welfare facilities will receive 400,000 KRW per facility.

Chungnam Province will support about 66,600 vulnerable households with 100,000 KRW each (total budget 6.66 billion KRW) and about 4,600 cold wave shelters such as senior centers and village halls with 200,000 KRW each (total budget 920 million KRW) using 7.6 billion KRW from the disaster relief fund.

In particular, besides supporting heating costs for 32,829 elderly households in the province, the province emphasizes that it plans to deploy 2,034 life support workers to frequently check residents' health status through on-site visits or phone calls.

Additionally, Chungnam plans to minimize citizen inconvenience by installing cold wave mitigation facilities such as windbreak facilities at bus stops with a budget of 700 million KRW.

The heating cost support by each local government is carried out independently of the government's recently announced support measures for vulnerable groups and socially considerate recipients, focusing on discovering blind spots where government support does not reach and ensuring more substantial heating cost support.

Daejeon Mayor Lee Jang-woo said, "The city's emergency heating cost support is a self-help measure carried out separately from government measures," and added, "We hope that the city's emergency support, in addition to government support, will make the heating welfare system more thorough and robust and help vulnerable groups and welfare facilities in the region get through the winter."