Children born abroad who have been exploiting loopholes by entering the country with 'temporary passports' that lack resident registration numbers will no longer be able to fraudulently claim child allowances and parental benefits. The Ministry of Health and Welfare has established a real-time connection with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' passport information system to prevent improper welfare payments to children residing abroad for more than 90 days.
Starting October 2, the Ministry of Health and Welfare will enable real-time verification of temporary passport information for children born abroad through the integration of its social security information system and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' passport information system. This will significantly enhance the management of welfare benefits such as child allowances and parental benefits by checking immigration records.
If a child receiving welfare benefits is confirmed to be staying abroad for more than 90 days, the payment will be immediately suspended according to relevant criteria. The long-term stay status has been monitored through the Ministry of Justice's immigration control system.
However, there was a gap in the system. When a child born abroad enters the country with a 'temporary passport' issued by a diplomatic mission instead of a formal passport, the immigration status may not be promptly identified. This is because temporary passports do not contain resident registration numbers, preventing direct linkage between immigration records and the social security information system.
Previously, local government officials had to manually register the temporary passport numbers of children born abroad once a year, which often led to missed exit notifications or intentional concealment of departure by some recipients. As a result, cases of improper payments due to delayed identification of long-term stays were not uncommon.
This inefficiency resulted in increased administrative burdens on local governments, as they had to later identify these cases, suspend payments, and recover funds already disbursed.
To address these structural gaps, the Ministry of Health and Welfare collaborated with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and established a real-time connection for temporary passport information between the social security information system and the passport information system in August.
As a result, starting October 2, notifications regarding the issuance of temporary passports for children will automatically alert local government officials during the welfare application process. Officials will be able to promptly register temporary passport information in the system and manage immigration records in real-time.
The Ministry stated, "This improvement will help prevent improper welfare payments in advance and reduce unnecessary administrative procedures and public inconvenience, significantly enhancing the appropriateness and efficiency of welfare management."
Park Chang-kyu, Director of Welfare Administration Support, emphasized, "This improvement has been selected as the first task of the National Normalization Project, showcasing how collaboration among relevant departments can swiftly address inefficiencies in welfare management. We will continue to actively identify and improve inefficiencies to create a reliable and efficient welfare administration for the public."
* This article has been translated by AI.
Copyright ⓒ Aju Press All rights reserved.