Welfare Crisis Alert App, Nationwide Implementation
Local Governments Verify Crisis Reports
Counseling and Service Linkage... Establishing a Safety Net
A service that connects welfare officials from local governments when economic difficulties or isolation and other welfare crisis situations are reported through a mobile phone application (app) will be implemented nationwide starting today (26th).
The Digital Platform Government Committee and the Ministry of Health and Welfare announced that the 'Welfare Crisis Alert App' will be available for use anywhere nationwide from this day forward.
The Welfare Crisis Alert App is developed to quickly notify welfare crisis situations such as economic hardship, health problems, isolation, and loneliness via mobile phones. It is a project promoted as part of the Digital Platform Government Committee's 'Citizen Experience Leading Project'.
When an individual or neighbor writes and submits information about a welfare crisis situation and the need for help, the person in charge at the local community center based on location information contacts them to conduct counseling. Depending on the counseling results, they can receive or be connected to available welfare services.
A photo attachment feature is provided to better understand the crisis situation and living conditions. For neighbor crisis alerts, considering cases where it is inevitably difficult to reveal identity, an anonymous application feature is also included.
The Ministry of Health and Welfare conducted a pilot operation from April to May targeting 18 cities and districts including Seodaemun-gu in Seoul, Asan-si in Chungnam, and Suwon-si in Gyeonggi-do, with about 11,000 people installing the app.
Among the 189 crisis alert recipients during this period, 170 (89%) were new households with no history of being selected as suspected welfare crisis households through the blind spot discovery system, confirming the possibility of quickly discovering new crisis households through the app.
The Welfare Crisis Alert App can be downloaded and installed for free from the App Store and Play Store or installed via QR code. It can be used after simple membership registration or even as a non-member.
Lee Seunghyun, Director of the Platform Data Innovation Bureau of the Digital Platform Government Committee, stated, "Through the Welfare Crisis Alert service, we expect all citizens to play a role in filling the gaps in welfare blind spots, and to build a dense welfare safety net by matching and supporting scattered welfare resources and services between the public and private sectors."
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