There have been calls to improve the birth registration system for unmarried fathers. (image: Korea Bizwire)
SEOUL, Aug. 13 (Korea Bizwire) — Starting from this month, unmarried fathers will be able to receive financial support for child-rearing expenses even before the birth of their child has been registered.
Their children will also be able to continue to receive health insurance benefits.
The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family unveiled such measures at the Ministerial Meeting for Social Affairs held on Wednesday.
Under the newly-introduced measures, unmarried fathers will be able to receive child-rearing subsidies if they provide the community center with a completed form of application for birth registration and the outcome of a genetic test that they submitted to the Family Court.
The child-rearing subsidy will be given retroactively to the date of submission.
Prior to these measures, unmarried fathers received the child-rearing subsidy only after birth registration had been completed.
Compared to unmarried mothers, the process of birth registration for unmarried fathers has been longer and more difficult.
This is because there have been various restrictions on unmarried fathers.
Among others, they had to be confirmed by the Family Court when they were unaware of the personal information of the mother such as their name and resident registration number, etc.
Even after completing the birth registration, unmarried fathers could not receive the child-rearing subsidy if they were engaged in a paternity lawsuit.
Against this backdrop, there have been calls to improve the birth registration system for unmarried fathers.
According to the ministry, the number of unmarried mothers and fathers in South Korea stood at 29,022 as of 2018. Of the total, unmarried mothers accounted for 21,254, while unmarried fathers numbered 7,768.
Lina Jang (linajang@koreabizwire.com)
