Seoul to Invest 630 Billion Won in Supporting Single-Person Households This Year... 'Accompaniment Service' Expanded and Revamped

31 Projects to Be Implemented This Year to Improve Quality of Life
Establishing a "Comprehensive Housing Safety Support System"
Formulating a "Five-Year Comprehensive Mid- to Long-Term Plan"

This year, Seoul City will invest 630 billion won to support single-person households, aiming to prevent isolation, promote self-reliance, and ensure housing stability. Seoul has the highest proportion of single-person households among all local governments in Korea.

On March 17, Seoul City announced that it will implement 31 projects to improve the quality of life for single-person households, while also launching the "2027–2031 Comprehensive Mid- to Long-Term Plan for Supporting Single-Person Households."

Stock photo of companionship service for single-person households. Provided by Seoul Metropolitan Government

This year, the city will allocate 631.6 billion won to implement 31 projects focused on three main pillars: prevention of isolation and accompanying care, expanding connections and promoting self-reliance, and housing stability and crime prevention.

First, the hospital accompaniment service—which assists single-person households who struggle to use medical facilities due to the lack of family or friends—will be comprehensively revamped as the "Integrated Accompaniment Service" starting this year, covering health, moving, and mental support.

Seoul City will unify its service call centers to enhance accessibility for citizens and aims to provide 20,000 instances of the service.

Mr. A, a single-person household in his 40s who underwent emergency surgery due to sudden pain, shared his experience: "I was devastated to hear that it would be difficult to be admitted without a guardian, but the accompaniment manager stayed by my side from hospital admission through surgery preparation to picking up medication after discharge."

The "Safe Contract Assistance Service" for rental contracts will also be integrated with the moving accompaniment service, establishing a "Comprehensive Housing Safety Support System" that covers house viewing accompaniment, contract consultation, and moving day accompaniment. Over the past four years (2022–2025), the Safe Contract Assistance Service handled 15,659 cases, and this year aims to provide 5,000 additional services.

To address the isolation risk among single-person households, the number of local "Dedicated Organizations for Households at Risk of Social Isolation" will be expanded from 64 locations last year to 70 this year, and the one-on-one partnership system with community centers will be strengthened.

The "Smart Welfare Check," which has served a cumulative 83,633 people since 2022, will support 22,000 individuals this year. The "Mind Care Managers" and "Loneliness Relief Accompaniment Teams" will target 6,000 new cases and 12,000 accompaniment activities, respectively, as part of their expansion goals.

Through the "Seoul Accompaniment Job Project" for single-person households, Seoul plans to provide jobs for 2,700 individuals this year. In addition, 3,570 self-supporting young adults will receive various forms of integrated support, including settlement grants, self-support allowances, educational maintenance funds, and job preparation funds.

Housing welfare measures include monthly rent support for 26,500 young people, upward housing mobility support for 5,700 vulnerable households, and 1,500 single-person household housing management services. The city will also expand the supply of youth safety housing and public housing.

Within this year, Seoul City will formulate a "Comprehensive Mid- to Long-Term Plan for Supporting Single-Person Households" to provide more practical assistance for the growing number of such households. Spanning the next five years, this plan aims not only to expand support for single-person households, but also to shift the overall governance paradigm toward a focus on smaller households.

Kim Hongchan, Director of Care and Loneliness Policy at Seoul City, stated, "Considering that single-person households account for 40% of all households, we will continue to develop and promote a diverse range of policies for single-person households moving forward."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.