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🇰🇷 South Korea /Economy & Trade

Seoul to overhaul Oh Se-hoon’s Didimdol Income program and change payment system

From Hankyoreh · () Korean

Translated from Korean and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Official statement New plan
  • Seoul has proposed legislation to institutionalize the pilot Didimdol Income program from next year, expanding eligibility to households below 100% of median income and with assets below 409 million won.
  • The city plans to replace the pilot’s formula, which paid half the gap between household income and a reference amount, while retaining greater support for households with lower incomes.
  • The final payment levels and eligibility details will depend on consultations with the Ministry of Health and Welfare and discussions with the Seoul Metropolitan Council.

Seoul plans to turn its pilot income-support program into a permanent policy next year, but the program will no longer use the formula that defined its original design.

A proposed revision to the city’s ordinance would expand eligibility to households with incomes at or below 100% of the national median and assets worth no more than 409 million won. The pilot covered households below 85% of median income with assets below 326 million won, so the proposed thresholds would bring more people within reach of the scheme.

That expansion does not mean every household meeting the thresholds would receive payments. Seoul is considering prioritizing vulnerable people facing combined difficulties, including caregiving responsibilities. The city has not yet decided how much support recipients would receive. It will finalize the details after consulting the Ministry of Health and Welfare on changes to the social security system and discussing the plan with the city council.

A different method of support

— Seoul Metropolitan Government welfare policy officialThe official described the planned change to the pilot program’s payment formula.

The pilot, first launched under the name Ansim Income, paid households half the difference between a reference income level and their actual household income. Recipients could not receive six other forms of cash assistance, including livelihood and housing benefits and the basic pension. When the new payment fell below the support a household had previously received, Seoul made up the difference.

The draft ordinance removes the provision defining Didimdol Income as a payment of up to half the gap between the reference amount and household income. Instead, it describes the program as income support designed to help Seoul residents facing economic and social difficulties achieve independence. A city welfare official said the program would use “a different method of support,” while maintaining the principle that lower-income households should receive more.

Oh Se-hoon promised Ans심 Income during his 2021 by-election campaign. The proposal drew on the idea of a negative income tax, which provides subsidies to households below a set income level and collects taxes from those above it. Seoul began the pilot in 2022 and renamed it Didimdol Income in 2025.

The concept of providing more support to people with lower incomes will remain

— Seoul Metropolitan Government welfare policy officialThe official said the program would retain its progressive support principle.
About this summary

Originally published by Hankyoreh in Korean. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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