Health ministry launches AI pilot to streamline welfare checks

The health ministry said Wednesday it will conduct the second-half 2026 regular verification survey for social security benefits from Oct. 1 to Dec. 31, aiming to reduce inconvenience for citizens while improving administrative efficiency.

Starting with this survey, the ministry will exclude National Tax Service comprehensive income data more than one year old from the assessment of regular employment income, preventing recipients from having to repeatedly prove income that has already ceased. Previously, authorities prioritized data from the four major insurance programs and used tax data as a supplementary source, but discrepancies in reporting periods often forced beneficiaries to submit redundant explanations.

To further ease the workload on public officials and help residents understand investigation results, the ministry will pilot an artificial intelligence service in partnership with local governments participating in its AI Policy Lab. The trial will involve Jeonnam-Gwangju Integrated Special City, Gyeonggi Province and North Chungcheong Province, focusing on analyzing patterns in manually submitted documents such as bank transaction records during objection procedures.

The upcoming check covers 11 welfare programs, drawing on 69 types of income and asset information collected from 141 financial institutions and 20 public agencies. Local governments will use this data to verify eligibility for support obligors and beneficiaries.

The regular verification system periodically investigates the income and assets of beneficiaries and their support obligors across 13 welfare programs, including basic livelihood security and the basic pension. While most programs undergo checks twice a year, the subordinated asset formation support and elementary, middle and high school education expense support projects are verified only in the first half.