Chuseok Livelihood Support Grant

Temporary cash-type support paid by the government and local governments around Chuseok to boost domestic demand and ease livelihood burdens.

Chuseok Livelihood Support Grant

Overview

The Chuseok Livelihood Support Grant (Korean: 추석 민생지원금) refers to temporary cash-type support paid by the government and local governments around the Chuseok holiday to stimulate consumption by small business owners, self-employed people, and vulnerable groups struggling amid domestic demand stagnation, high prices, and high interest rates, and to ease livelihood burdens. As a policy tool that has repeatedly appeared around holidays and economic downturns since the COVID-19 disaster relief grants, it is not merely welfare spending; it also has the character of a 'consumption coupon' in that it circulates funds through local commercial districts to induce domestic demand recovery. Whether it is paid, its size, and its eligibility vary each year depending on the government budget proposal, political negotiations, and local fiscal conditions.

Key Details

Concept and Purpose

The core purposes of the Chuseok Livelihood Support Grant can be summarized in three ways. First, it preserves real income by easing the burden of living costs, gifts, and grocery prices concentrated during the holiday period. Second, it stimulates private consumption to raise sales for self-employed people and small neighborhood businesses. Third, it prevents consumption sentiment from shrinking during an economic downturn, creating a priming effect for domestic demand recovery. For this reason, local love gift certificates or prepaid cards are often preferred over cash as the payment method.

Payment Forms

Local love gift certificates: A form usable only in the relevant region, evaluated as having a large effect on inducing local consumption. However, restrictions on where they can be used and issues with refunds and remaining balances are pointed out as drawbacks.
Prepaid card/check card top-ups: A method of topping up through a card company app after applying, offering high accessibility.
Credit/check card cashback: A method of returning part of the amount spent over a certain period, but it has the problem that benefits spread even to high-income earners.
Cash/bank transfer: Mainly paid to vulnerable groups such as basic livelihood security recipients, the near-poor, and single-parent families.

Eligibility and Scale

The scope of eligibility varies greatly by policy. Representative examples include universal payments to all citizens, selective payments limited to those below a certain income percentile, industry-specific payments only to small business owners and self-employed people, and concentrated support for vulnerable groups. The per-person payment amount is generally in the range of 100,000 to 250,000 won, and household-unit payments are sometimes used in parallel. When local governments provide additional payments from their own resources, they may be combined with government support.

History

Starting with the COVID-19 emergency disaster relief grants in 2020, the Mutual Prosperity National Support Grant in 2021 and the Small Business Loss Compensation Grant in 2022 were implemented. Afterward, discussions of livelihood support grants were repeated around holidays and periods of economic downturn, and in 2025, as support in the form of livelihood recovery consumption coupons was pursued, the need for additional support around the Chuseok period was also discussed. In this process, the payment method gradually shifted from cash to gift certificates and card top-ups, and eligibility gradually moved from universal payments to selective payments.

Issues and Controversies

Fiscal soundness: Criticism is raised that large-scale spending increases national debt and fiscal deficits.
Stoking inflation: There are concerns that released liquidity could fuel inflation.
Equity: Universal payments benefit high-income earners as well, while selective payments create problems with eligibility criteria and blind spots.
Political use: Ahead of elections, controversy over vote-buying handouts recurs.
Implementation efficiency: It is pointed out that if the application process is complicated or places of use are limited, the actual consumption stimulation effect is reduced.

Latest Trends

In 2024–2025, as prolonged high prices and high interest rates overlapped with weak domestic demand, discussions about livelihood support grants around Chuseok became active again. The government moved toward presenting package-style measures linked to selective support centered on small business owners and vulnerable groups, expanded issuance of local love gift certificates, and discounts on Onnuri gift certificates for traditional markets. At the same time, as fiscal authorities' concerns about soundness clashed with political demands for universal payments, debate continued over the size and eligibility of payments. As digital technology spread, rapid payment based on mobile applications and simple payments and sophisticated design of usage deadlines and places of use became mainstream, and attempts increased to verify policy effects after the fact and reflect them in the next holiday measures. Competition among local governments for their own livelihood support grants also expanded, and as central government support and local government support overlapped, discussions of equity tended to grow.