Half of Guardians Not Receiving Child Support Are from Vulnerable Groups

It has been found that half of the guardians who are not receiving child support from their former spouses or other parties belong to vulnerable social groups.

According to the Child Support Agency under the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, 48.0% of the approximately 30,000 people who have applied for child support enforcement services since the agency's opening in March 2015 were from vulnerable groups, including recipients of basic livelihood security, the near-poverty class, and single-parent families.

This was followed by those with an income at or below 75% of the median income (25.5%), those at or below 100% of the median income (7.5%), and those at or below 150% of the median income (4.4%).

The median income is a standard used to determine eligibility for approximately 80 government welfare programs, including basic livelihood security, living allowances, medical benefits, and national scholarships.

As of this year, the median income is approximately 4.2 million won for a two-person household and approximately 5.36 million won for a three-person household.

By family type, 94.1% were divorced single parents, and 5.9% were unmarried single parents.

Multicultural families and grandparent-headed families accounted for 3.4% and 0.4%, respectively.

By gender, 85.2% of the guardians were female, and 14.8% were male.

Regarding the age of the children, 48.2% were aged 15–19, 37.4% were 10–14, 12.8% were 5–9, and 1.6% were 4 or younger.

The child support enforcement service provides assistance to help custodial parents receive child support from non-custodial parents, including mediation between parties, child support litigation, debt collection, and sanctions for non-payment.

Since July of last year, a child support advance payment system has been in place, where the government first pays child support to single-parent families who have not received it from their former spouses and later recovers the advanced funds from the non-custodial parent who owes the debt.

Single-parent households with an income at or below 150% of the median income, who have made efforts to collect child support but have not received it for three months or three consecutive times, can apply for advance child support payments of up to 200,000 won per child per month until the child reaches the age of 18.

Previously, Minister of Gender Equality and Family Won Min-kyung stated at a press conference marking the first anniversary of the administration on the 11th, "Starting this October, we will remove the income criteria (for advance child support applications) and ensure the state recovers unpaid child support to the very end."

(Photo: Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.