Seoul City, Public Facility Visitors Soar Following Relaxation of Multi-Child Criteria

Six Additional Support Projects to Be Promoted This Year

Since Seoul City relaxed the criteria for multi-child families to '2 children' last May as part of the 'Birth Support Seoul Project,' the number of visitors to public facilities has significantly increased, indicating a rise in convenience for users. The city plans to implement six additional support projects for multi-child families this year.

According to the city on the 20th, after Seoul Grand Park made admission free for families with two or more children, the number of visitors increased more than 24 times, and Seoul Botanical Garden also saw nearly double the visitors. The city has been providing benefits such as discounts on public facility usage fees, public utility fees, and childcare support to ease the burden on multi-child families.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

The city also expanded the eligibility for the 'Dadungi Happiness Card,' a support card for multi-child families, from youngest child under 13 to under 18 years old, and improved convenience by enabling issuance of an 'app card' via smartphones. As a result, middle and high school students can newly receive discount benefits such as a 10% discount at Chosim Study Cafe. From May 17 last year to May this year, about 56,396 app cards were newly issued.

This year, the city will expand benefits such as the First Meeting Voucher and Seoul-style housekeeping services. The First Meeting Voucher, which previously provided 2 million KRW per newborn, will increase to 3 million KRW for the second child and beyond starting this year. For households with two or more minor children, the number of Seoul-style housekeeping service support visits, which assist with household chores, has increased from 6 to 10 times per year.

New projects include free enrollment in multiple birth safety insurance, new supply of long-term rental housing (SHift2), multi-child care support, automatic discount and payment at public parking lots, and exemption from congestion tolls at Namsan Tunnel.

Reflecting the recent trend of increasing multiple births, the city will provide free enrollment in multiple birth safety insurance and start a care support project for the first child upon the birth of a second child. Multiple birth safety insurance is automatically enrolled for families raising multiples born from January 1 this year without a separate application, providing up to 30 million KRW in support for 17 items including emergency room visits and diagnosis fees for specific infectious diseases.

Long-term rental housing II (SHift2) offers increasing benefits based on the number of children after moving in. If a resident has one child while living there, the maximum residency period extends from 10 to 20 years; if two children are born, after 20 years the resident can purchase the home at 10% below market price; and if three children are born, at 20% below market price. Families with more children can also move to larger units.

Automatic discount on public parking fees and exemption from congestion tolls at Namsan Tunnels 1 and 3 for multi-child families are scheduled to be implemented from August 21. Previously, to receive discounts at public parking lots, families had to show their Dadungi Happiness Card, but starting August 21, automatic discount and payment will be implemented by linking the Baro Green Payment system with the public parking management system. Multi-child families can register their vehicle information, payment method, and eligibility on the Baro Green Payment website in advance to automatically receive parking fee discounts.

Kim Seon-soon, Director of the Seoul City Women and Family Policy Office, said, "In this era of low birth rates where even raising one child is difficult, we deeply empathize with the challenges of raising multiple children, which require two or three times the effort. We are considering various policies to alleviate the difficulties faced by multi-child families. We will continue to discover and implement policies that multi-child families can tangibly feel."