Expansion of Benefits Including Relaxed Participation Age for Sonmok Doctor 9988
Simplified Counselor Recruitment Procedures to Prevent Career Disruption
Incorporating Civil Servant Proposals Such as Extended Village Bus Usage Time
From now on, adolescents aged 13 to 18 can also receive the youth discount on the Climate Companion Card. In addition, the 'Sonmok Doctor 9988,' which was previously available only to those aged 19 and older, can now be used from the age of 18.
On the 23rd, the Seoul Metropolitan Government announced 10 additional deregulation measures to enable more citizens to enjoy benefits in education, employment, and welfare. Earlier, Seoul had set deregulation as this year's key theme and has announced a total of 93 deregulation measures since the first announcement on January 3.
Deregulation measures Nos. 84 and 85 focus on lowering barriers so that more citizens can participate in Seoul’s representative policies and projects. First is the 'Relaxation of Age Restrictions for Sonmok Doctor 9988,' Seoul’s citizen health platform. Starting in April, the eligible participation age will be lowered from 19 to 18 to allow more citizens to play a role in maintaining health. This change was made after reviewing citizen proposals requesting expanded opportunities to cultivate healthy habits from adolescence, considering the age of university entrance and social advancement, the city explained.
No. 85 is the 'Abolition of Income Requirements for Issuance of Lifelong Education Use Vouchers.' To address educational inequality and gaps, the lifelong education use vouchers, which were limited to basic livelihood security recipients and lower-income groups, will be expanded to the general public to guarantee lifelong learning opportunities.
No. 86 is the 'Simplification of Appointment Screening Procedures for Seoul Youth Mental Health Counseling Partners.' Youth mental health counseling partners are appointed and operated on a one-year basis after screening and evaluation. However, counseling partners who had excellent counseling performance but gave up reappointment due to childbirth, childcare, etc., had to undergo the same document screening and interview process as new counselors to resume counseling. To reduce this inconvenience, if counseling performance is excellent, the document screening process will be waived, and appointment will be simplified to an interview only.
No. 87 is the 'Abolition of Age Restrictions for Participants in the Seoul Middle-aged and Senior Value Companion Job Project,' which currently specifies ages 40 to 67. Previously, Seoul adjusted the participation age once from 65 to 67 in 2017.
Benefits such as simplification of public facility reservation procedures were also introduced. Deregulation measures Nos. 88 and 89 are measures to improve citizen convenience. First, the 'Improvement of Visit Procedures at Seoul Medical Center' through the installation of kiosks dedicated to identity verification will be implemented. Seoul Medical Center plans to minimize waiting times by deploying kiosks equipped with simple authentication functions such as Naver, Kakao, and PASS apps, eliminating the hassle of hospital staff having to check patients’ IDs one by one. The 'DDP Venue Rental Operation Procedure' will also be greatly improved. Until now, renting DDP spaces was only possible by phone inquiry during business hours followed by email.
Measures to improve general daily convenience for citizens will also be implemented. Deregulation measures Nos. 90 to 93 are excellent proposals selected at the 'Deregulation Creative Presentation' held in March. No. 90 is to increase the 'Maximum Usable Time for Village Buses' from 1 hour to 2 hours. Annually, 15,000 passengers who ride village buses for more than 1 to 2 hours were charged an additional basic fare (1,200 KRW).
The 'Expansion of Youth Discount Application for Climate Companion Card' will also be promoted. Based on a 30-day pass, the youth discount, which is 7,000 KRW cheaper and currently available for ages 19 to 39, will be expanded to ages 13 to 18. Currently, youth public transportation fares are about 40% cheaper than regular fares, but there has been a burden on transportation costs due to multiple bus rides per day for commuting to and from school and academies.
Deregulation measure No. 92 is the 'Abolition of Discount Registration Procedures for Transportation Cards for Disabled Children.' Currently, transportation cards for disabled children can be issued at the local community service center, but after issuance, separate registration on the T-money company website was required to receive bus fare discounts. To reduce this inconvenience, a system will be introduced that automatically registers the card upon issuance based on the personal information and consent collected at the community service center, without separate registration with T-money.
No. 93 is the 'Relaxation of Selection Criteria for Emergency and Temporary Care Facilities for Elementary Students.' Through this, the number of emergency and temporary care facilities, currently 29, is planned to increase to 127 this year. The Seoul Metropolitan Government said, "Since January, we have been carefully reviewing citizen and public official proposals to discover improvement tasks closely related to citizens’ lives," and added, "We will do our utmost to improve systems so that inconveniences closely related to citizens’ lives can be promptly addressed."
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
