Miryang-si, 'Hope Support Fund' ... Expansion of Emergency Welfare Support for Crisis Households

Intensive Identification of Vulnerable Groups in Welfare Blind Spots

Miryang City in Gyeongnam Province is implementing the government-type emergency welfare support and the Gyeongnam-type emergency welfare support called ‘Hope Support Fund’ to help vulnerable groups facing economic difficulties due to crisis situations.

The government-type emergency welfare support is a system that quickly provides living expenses, medical expenses, housing costs, education expenses, and more to low-income households who are struggling to maintain their livelihood due to sudden crises such as unemployment, business closure, serious illness, injury, natural disasters, or crime victimization, helping them to overcome the crisis.

Miryang City Hall.

The support criteria are △ 75% or less of the standard median income (standard income for a single-person household is 1.79 million KRW, for a four-person household 4.57 million KRW) △ property worth 152 million KRW △ financial assets of 8.39 million KRW for a single-person household and 12.09 million KRW for a four-person household or less. The support amount varies according to the number of household members, such as 1.87 million KRW for living expenses for a four-person household, up to 3 million KRW for medical expenses, and up to 430,000 KRW for housing costs.

In addition, starting this month, the ‘Hope Support Fund’ will be implemented for low-income crisis households that do not qualify for the government-type emergency welfare support.

The Hope Support Fund, implemented for the first time this year, is a project that supplements and expands the existing government-type emergency welfare support program to provide rapid assistance to vulnerable groups facing crisis situations. It targets low-income households in crisis due to unemployment, business closure, death, illness, etc., of the main income earner in the household.

The support criteria are relaxed from the current government-type emergency welfare support criteria (75% or less) to △ 90% or less of the standard median income (standard income for a single-person household is 2.15 million KRW, for a four-person household 5.48 million KRW) △ property worth 152 million KRW △ financial assets of 12.39 million KRW for a single-person household and 16.09 million KRW for a four-person household or less. The support content is the same as the government-type emergency welfare support.

Miryang City plans to focus on discovering vulnerable groups in welfare blind spots who do not qualify for government-type emergency welfare support through the expanded scope of the Hope Support Fund.

Additionally, to assist vulnerable groups who have difficulty receiving public benefit support due to institutional limitations, the ‘Miryang Happiness Sharing Fund,’ a Miryang-type emergency welfare support funded by voluntary donations from citizens, will continue to be promoted.

The Miryang Happiness Sharing Fund, launched in June 2016, provides support such as 500,000 KRW for living expenses, up to 3 million KRW for medical expenses, and up to 5 million KRW for housing environment improvement. Last year, 16 vulnerable households in crisis benefited from this program.

A Miryang City official said, “Not only the Hope Support Fund, which is being implemented to welcome the new year, but also existing programs including the Miryang Happiness Sharing Fund will be carried out thoroughly to promptly support vulnerable groups experiencing difficulties in crisis situations.”