"'Finance-Employment-Welfare' Integrated Support Promotion Direction to be Finalized and Announced in the First Half of the Year"

Complex Support Promotion Team Holds 1st Meeting
Kwon Daeyoung, Financial Services Commission Secretary-General, "Swift Identification of Complex Support Tasks"

On the 9th, officials were busy moving in the corridor of the Financial Services Commission at the Government Seoul Office in Jongno-gu, Seoul, where financial authorities decided to promote a plan to include mortgage loans (Judaemae) in the 'debt refinancing' infrastructure scheduled to be launched in May by the end of the year. Financial authorities explained that they aim to reduce the interest burden on mortgage loans by establishing a debt refinancing platform that allows users to compare financial sector loan interest rates at a glance and switch loans easily. Photo by Dongju Yoon doso7@

The Financial Services Commission announced on the 7th that it held the first meeting of the 'Financial-Employment-Welfare Integrated Support Promotion Task Force' together with related ministries and affiliated organizations.

This meeting was held to facilitate the smooth implementation of the financial-employment-welfare integrated support, which was selected as a collaborative task among ministries through the President-led public livelihood discussion. Starting with this first meeting, consultations with related agencies will be held regularly to review the contents and delivery system of the integrated support, aiming to establish a support system for vulnerable groups that the public can tangibly feel.

At the meeting, Kwon Dae-young, Secretary General of the Financial Services Commission, stated that to achieve tangible integrated support results within the year, they will faithfully implement the financial-employment integrated support plan announced last January and swiftly identify integrated support tasks related to finance-welfare and other needs of low-income and vulnerable groups in cooperation with related agencies.

The collaborative ministries for integrated support, including the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, the Ministry of Health and Welfare, and the Ministry of Employment and Labor, also plan to actively cooperate to provide financial-employment-welfare integrated support that the public can experience. The Ministry of the Interior and Safety will support active participation of administrative welfare centers, which have broad contact with local residents. The Ministry of Health and Welfare plans to prepare measures to comprehensively support welfare-vulnerable groups facing financial and employment difficulties. The Ministry of Employment and Labor will strengthen employment-finance linkage to help vulnerable groups achieve more stable self-reliance through jobs.

Additionally, the meeting discussed the preparation status of the integrated debt adjustment for finance and telecommunications announced at the public livelihood discussion on January 17. The Financial Services Commission emphasized that for the smooth economic recovery of vulnerable groups such as low-income individuals, integrated adjustment is necessary not only for financial debts but also for telecommunications debts. The Ministry of Science and ICT agreed with this direction and pledged active cooperation to enable the Credit Recovery Committee to integrate telecommunications debts along with financial debts.

The task force will hold meetings with related organizations regularly for the time being and prepare measures to strengthen integrated support together with affiliated organizations and experts. In particular, since the public livelihood discussion raised the view that the Integrated Support Center for Low-Income Finance should be developed into a platform that can provide not only financial and employment services but also welfare services, plans to intensively supplement and prepare measures to strengthen welfare service integrated support will be pursued.

Meanwhile, based on consultations with related agencies, the task force plans to finalize and announce the direction for promoting financial-employment-welfare integrated support within the first half of this year.