Cumulative Enforcement Amount Reaches 207.8 Billion
Child Support Enforcement Rate at 44.1% This Year
The Child Support Enforcement Agency under the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family has collected over 200 billion won in child support payments from non-custodial parents during its 10 years of operation.
According to the Enforcement Agency on the 7th, the cumulative amount of child support payments enforced since the agency's establishment in 2015 until July 15 of this year totaled 207.8 billion won.
The Enforcement Agency, which supports claims and enforcement of child support for minor children, is currently operated as an organization under the Korea Healthy Family Promotion Agency but is set to become independent next month.
The amount of child support payments collected by the Enforcement Agency has accumulated from 2.5 billion won in 2015 to 111.2 billion won in 2021, and 177.2 billion won in 2023.
The Enforcement Agency supports child support payments by identifying the whereabouts of child support debtors through the Ministry of the Interior and Safety’s administrative information sharing network and securing information on hidden assets of debtors using comprehensive income and earned income data from the National Tax Service.
Since its launch, it has also handled 300,000 consultations, provided 9,242 legal supports, and assisted with 55,988 collection cases.
Accordingly, the child support enforcement rate has increased from 21.2% in 2015 to 44.1% as of June this year.
Starting next month, with the enforcement of the revised "Child Support Enforcement Act," sanctions against child support debtors who fail to comply will be possible with enforcement orders alone, without the need for detention orders.
The introduction of a "child support advance payment system," where the state first pays child support to single-parent families and later recovers the amount from the non-custodial parent, is also being pursued.
Jeon Ju-won, head of the Enforcement Agency, said, "I hope that the child support advance payment system, which is already implemented overseas, will be promptly introduced in Korea to provide a safety net for the upbringing of minor children in single-parent families."
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