[GLOBAL ECONOMIC TIMES]  An additional 149 debtors were subject to sanctions such as driver's license suspension, ban on leaving the country, and disclosure of names for failing to pay child support.

The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family announced on the 21st that it held the 38th Child Support Implementation Deliberation Committee on the 14th and 15th and decided on sanctions against those who default on child support obligations. The committee decided to impose 177 sanctions on a total of 149 people. By type, bans on leaving the country accounted for the most with 115 cases, followed by suspension of driver's licenses in 58 cases, and disclosure of lists including name, age, occupation, and address information in 4 cases.

The total debt of the 149 child support defaulters subject to sanctions this time is 8.642 billion won. This means that an average of 58 million won per person was not paid. The largest amount of debt amounts to 274 million won.

The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family announced that the number of subjects has continued to increase since it first began imposing sanctions on those who defaulted on child support in July 2021. There are 27 cases in the second half of 2021, 359 cases in 2022, 639 cases in 2023, and 789 cases by October 2024. As of October this year, the total number of sanctions imposed last year has already been surpassed. From the first year of sanctions to the present, a total of 1,814 sanctions have been imposed on 735 people (excluding duplicates).

An official from the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family told the Hankyoreh, “The amount of debt based on sanctions in 2022 will be relaxed from 50 million won to 30 million won, and if the child support payment order is not followed by the court, a detention order (imprisonment at a police station, prison, detention center, etc.) will be imposed and sanctions will be given after deliberation. “As a result of continuous improvement of the system, such as eliminating procedures that were required to be done, the number of sanctions appears to be increasing every year,” he explained.

The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family plans to hold the 39th Child Support Implementation Deliberation Committee in December to decide on additional sanctions and announce the status of sanctions for this year.

Meanwhile, starting in July of next year, the ‘advance payment system for child support’ will be implemented, where the government pays part of child support on behalf of the child support debtor and then returns it to the child support debtor later. The target is single-parent households with an income of 150% or less of the standard median income, and a monthly support of 200,000 won per person is planned until the minor children become adults.