Key Summary
- The government will contact households whose energy voucher benefits were interrupted after a move and help them reapply.
- About 25,000 households with suspended voucher use will be covered by a special outreach service through March next year.
- Households in small rooms and goshiwon facilities that have heating costs bundled into rent will receive winter heating aid in cash earlier than before.
- Additional support will also be provided to households using kerosene or LPG for heating, and some utility shutoff delays will be extended.
Main Story
South Korea’s government is preparing a broader winter protection package for vulnerable households, including a new effort to help people whose energy voucher benefits stopped after they moved or had changes in household records.
The Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment reported the plan to a cabinet meeting on the 10th. Under the new approach, counselors will call households whose benefits were interrupted, and if they agree, a public official will file the reapplication for them. The service will run until March next year and is aimed at more than 25,000 households whose voucher use has been suspended.
The energy voucher program helps low-income households with heating and cooling costs, especially those with elderly people, people with disabilities, or infants and toddlers. This year, 1.44 million households are eligible, and recipients can use a National Happiness Card to pay electricity and gas bills or buy heating fuels such as kerosene. Until now, households had to reapply on their own if changes such as a move or a change in household members caused their information to differ from the previous year. Some households lost support if they missed that process.
New applicants will still need to apply directly. A ministry official said a bill has already been proposed that would allow officials to apply on behalf of new recipients, adding that the government is considering various ways to make that possible.
The ministry also said it is reviewing whether to expand eligibility, noting that about 30% of basic livelihood recipient households do not currently receive vouchers.
For households in one-room units and goshiwon-style accommodations, where heating costs are included in rent and cannot be paid separately through the voucher system, the government will move up cash support that had previously been paid only after winter ended. Starting this year, the payment will be made in November, before winter begins. About 5,300 households that applied by the end of October are scheduled to receive the money in their bank accounts on the 12th. The amount will be based on the average voucher spending of households with the same number of family members last year.
The government will also expand a program in which mail carriers and social workers visit homes to help with card issuance and use. That program will increase from 59,000 households last year to as many as 122,000 households this year.
In addition, about 210,000 households that use kerosene or liquefied petroleum gas as their main heating fuel will receive an extra 147,000 won each, bringing their average total support to 514,000 won. The ministry said the additional amount was set because prices for the two fuels rose by 20% to 30% from the same period last year, citing the impact of the U.S.-Iran war and a strong won-dollar exchange rate. The extra payment is scheduled to be delivered through the National Happiness Card from December 9.
The package also includes a delay on utility shutoffs for vulnerable households that are behind on payments and struggling to maintain heating and electricity use in winter. Households in that category will not have their city gas service cut off from October this year through May next year, and restrictions on electricity use will be lifted from next month through February next year.
Background
The supplied article provided limited background beyond explaining that the energy voucher system supports heating and cooling costs for low-income households with eligible family members, and that benefit interruptions have occurred when household registration details changed after a move or family composition update.
Items Requiring Further Verification
- The exact implementation details of the new reapplication outreach service, including how households are selected and how consent is recorded, are described by the ministry but not independently confirmed in the article.
- The statement that about 30% of basic livelihood recipient households do not receive vouchers is presented as a ministry assessment and would benefit from independent confirmation.
- The attribution of the heating fuel price increases to the U.S.-Iran war and exchange-rate effects is a government explanation and is not independently substantiated in the text.
- The article states that the extra kerosene and LPG payment will begin on December 9 and that about 5,300 households will receive November payments on the 12th; these scheduled dates should be verified if used in reporting.