All South Koreans to get COVID-19 relief money

The National Assembly holds a plenary session to vote on a 12.2 trillion-won (US$10 billion) extra budget and other bills on Wednesday. Yonhap via The Korea Herald/Asia News Network

SEOUL — South Korea’s National Assembly on Thursday passed a 12.2-trillion-won ($10 billion) extra budget bill to offer disaster relief money to all Koreans to help them tackle the economic fallout from the COVID-19 outbreak.

The second supplementary budget to be approved this year was increased from the government’s earlier proposal of 7.6 trillion won as the scope of recipients was expanded from the bottom 70 percent of the income bracket to all households.

The government will provide 1 million won in emergency disaster relief money for households with four or more people; 800,000 won for three-person households; 600,000 won for two-person households and 400,000 won for single-person households.

The government was initially against the idea of providing disaster aid to all households, but the ruling Democratic Party and the finance ministry later agreed on a universal payout, saying they will encourage high-income earners to give up all or part of their share as donations.

This year’s first extra budget bill was passed 45 days ago on March 17.

The last time two supplementary budgets were approved in a year was in 2003 when Typhoon Maemi hit Korea.

The government is already taking steps to draw a third extra budget bill. The last time Korea drew up three supplementary budgets in a year was in 1969.