Gyeonggi-do Completes Heating Cost Support for 287,193 Households in Safety-Vulnerable Groups

Gyeonggi Province has completed providing heating cost support amounting to 14.35965 billion KRW to 287,193 households in vulnerable safety groups in preparation for the cold wave.

The heating cost support for vulnerable safety groups is a measure to protect basic livelihood security recipients and lower-income groups who urgently need financial assistance due to the ongoing winter cold wave caused by abnormal climate. Gyeonggi Province allocated 15.4 billion KRW from the provincial disaster relief fund to provide 50,000 KRW per household for heating costs.

Earlier, on January 9, when a cold wave warning was issued across all cities and counties in the province, Governor Kim Dong-yeon conducted an emergency inspection of a shantytown in Paldal-gu, Suwon City, and promised prompt heating cost support.

Gyeonggi Province explained that through the heating cost support for vulnerable safety groups, 245,272 basic livelihood security recipient households and 41,921 lower-income households in the province benefited.

Gyeonggi Provincial Government

This is the first time heating cost support has been provided to the lower-income group, offering practical help to single-parent families, grandparent-headed or father-headed households, and households with disabled members who had not previously received heating cost support, thereby helping to alleviate welfare blind spots.

Among the total 287,193 eligible households, 231,526 households with secured account information received the support immediately without additional procedures, while 55,667 households received support after phone or in-person verification. Account transfers accounted for 281,881 cases, and cash payments totaled 5,312 cases.

Kim Hana, Director of Welfare at Gyeonggi Province, stated, "Since the support was fully funded by the provincial budget, each city and county could focus on protecting vulnerable groups without worrying about securing budgets, enabling us to complete the support in a short period." She added, "We believe that the emergency heating cost support has practically helped protect residents' daily lives and recover the frozen local economy."