BUSAN — The Busan Metropolitan Government and the Busan Regional Tax Office have set up a joint system to identify and support households in crisis, including people who have fallen behind on taxes while struggling to make ends meet. By linking tax field operations with welfare administration, the two agencies aim to detect warning signs early and help residents stabilize their lives and recover financially.
The city said on the 27th that it signed a memorandum of understanding with the Busan Regional Tax Office on the 26th at city hall to identify and support households facing welfare crises. The city plans to proactively monitor conditions that are difficult to capture through its existing set of 49 types of big data, such as electricity and water cutoffs, including illness, job loss, deteriorating housing conditions and the risk of dying alone.
A 1,581-member team at the Busan Regional Tax Office, which handles arrears on national taxes and other national revenues and launched in August to conduct field surveys, will serve as welfare messengers. When team members spot warning signs while visiting or calling households with unpaid taxes, they will report them through a welfare crisis alert app or to officials at the neighborhood level. A cooperation network has also been built between officials at Busan's 206 neighborhood offices and nine district tax offices.
Community service centers at the neighborhood level will review necessary services, such as emergency welfare aid, after counseling sessions. The Busan Regional Tax Office will connect low-income tax debtors to tax relief measures, including the extinguishment of their payment obligations or a deferral of collection action. The city will also provide training for the arrears management team on welfare programs and how to identify households in crisis.
Through its system for finding people who fall through gaps in the welfare net, the city identified 77,824 people through September this year and provided tailored services to 41,423 of them. The welfare crisis alert app has 12,794 subscribers in the city, accounting for 12% of the national total. The city is also using artificial intelligence for initial counseling.
"The field activities of the arrears management team will help close gaps in the welfare net," said Hwang Soon-gil, director general of the city's social welfare bureau. "We will link our welfare capabilities with tax support to help citizens stabilize their lives and recover financially."