South Korean couple welcoming quintuplets to receive over $164,000 in childbirth grants
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This marks the first natural quintuplet birth in South Korea.
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION: AFP
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SEOUL - In a country grappling with the world’s lowest fertility rate of 0.72
On Sept 24, the focus shifted to the sum of all government grants that the babies will be receiving – totalling at least 170 million won (S$164,000). Whether this is enough is now being hotly debated online.
Mr Kim Joon-young and Ms Sagong Hye-ran from Dongducheon, Gyeonggi province, welcomed three boys and two girls on Sept 20, marking the first natural quintuplet birth in South Korea. Ms Sagong works as an administrative official at a school in Yangju, Gyeonggi province, while her husband is a high school teacher in Dongducheon.
First, the city is to provide 15 million won in cash vouchers, which can be used at any store within the city with annual sales of less than one billion won. The city’s childbirth promotion package offers one million won for the first child, 1.5 million won for the second, 2.5 million won for the third and five million won for the fourth and beyond.
Dongducheon will also provide 3.5 million won in postnatal care support, also in the form of cash vouchers.
Separately, the couple is eligible for the Welfare Ministry’s one-off First Meeting Voucher, worth 14 million won, on top of two monthly subsidies – a parental allowance amounting to 85 million won and a children’s allowance amounting to 47.5 million won – spread over the duration of the programmes.
The First Meeting Voucher entails a lump-sum grant for parents upon having a baby, with two million won provided for the first child and three million won for the second and beyond.
The parental allowance, introduced in January 2023, offers one million won a month per child for the first 11 months following birth, followed by 500,000 won a month for the next 11 months.
The parents will also receive a children’s allowance of 100,000 won a month for each child from birth until the child reaches 95 months. THE KOREA HERALD/ASIA NEWS NETWORK
