Gyeonggi Province Adds Suwon to Artists' Opportunity Income Program for Next Year

[Suwon Ilbo=Reporter Park No-hoon] Gyeonggi Province announced on the 26th that in its first year of implementing the opportunity income program, it provided opportunity income to approximately 14,000 recipients, including around 7,000 artists and 7,000 people with disabilities.

For next year, Gyeonggi Province is adding Suwon to the list of municipalities eligible for artist opportunity income support, expanding the total to 28 municipalities with 13,000 artists, and also expanding the disability opportunity income from 7,000 to 10,000 recipients while increasing the monthly amount from 500,000 won to 1 million won starting in the second half of the year.

Opportunity income is a policy designed to provide more opportunities to those who create value in society but do not receive fair compensation, by supplementing their income for a certain period.

Artist opportunity income is paid to artists residing in the province whose individual income is at or below 120% of the median income among those with valid art activity certification, with an annual payment of 1.5 million won distributed in two installments.

The province explained that the policy aim of artist opportunity income is for artists to engage in creative artistic activities while receiving opportunity income for a certain period, and for residents to share in the social value that results from these activities.

This year, the program was implemented across 27 municipalities in the province (excluding Suwon, Yongin, Goyang, and Seongnam).

As of December, 18 municipalities including Paju have selected 4,123 artists as payment recipients and completed distribution in two installments, while the remaining 9 municipalities will complete payment by year-end, with approximately 7,000 artists across the entire province receiving opportunity income this year.

Next year, with Suwon's participation in the expanded program, approximately 13,000 artists residing in a total of 28 municipalities are expected to receive artist opportunity income.

Disability opportunity income involves providing 500,000 won monthly to those categorized as having 'severe disabilities.'

With the disability opportunity income program, people with severe disabilities are required to wear smartwatches and engage in physical activity at least twice weekly for at least one hour each time, actively managing their own health.

Through this, when physical conditions improve to reduce social costs such as medical and care expenses, this is also viewed as creating value.

The province initially provided disability opportunity income to 2,000 recipients in July, then added 5,000 more in October, providing a total of 7,000 people with disability opportunity income.

Starting in the second half of next year, disability opportunity income will increase from 500,000 won to 1 million won monthly, allowing recipients to receive up to 900,000 won over a maximum of 12 months, with the support scale expanding to 10,000 people.

Notably, a survey of the initial 2,000 participants showed that 86.5% (1,730 people) had virtually no physical activity of one time per week or less, but this dropped sharply to 2.7% (543 people) after receiving disability opportunity income.

A provincial official stated, "Both artist opportunity income and disability opportunity income are designed to promote activities that create social value," adding, "We plan to establish and implement new opportunity income programs for athletes, farmers and fisheries workers, climate action, and child care communities next year to ensure that opportunity income programs can be more widely extended to more people."