Interior ministry to launch QR code discount eligibility checks on Oct. 29

The interior ministry said Wednesday it will launch a service on Oct. 29 that lets people confirm discount and preferential-treatment eligibility with a mobile phone instead of paper documents, starting with multi-child families, people with disabilities and national merit recipients.

At theme parks, tourist sites and sports facilities, visitors scan a QR code posted on site and complete a simple authentication, and the eligibility information needed for the discount appears on the screen.

Until now, proving eligibility for most on-site discounts meant producing paper documents, and people who forgot them often missed out even when they qualified.

The service is designed to show only what the eligibility check requires. A paper family certificate carries children's resident registration numbers and details of other household members, but the new screen displays only the number and ages of children. Operators do not receive or store customers' personal information.

Users need no separate app or membership. They scan the code with their phone's basic camera and authenticate, and operators download a dedicated QR code from the public MyData website (www.mydata.go.kr) after selecting the eligibility categories they need. Staff check the screen and apply benefits under existing rules. Identity cards and paper documents remain accepted, so people unfamiliar with digital devices can still verify eligibility as before.

The ministry built the service with the public from the design stage, incorporating feedback from 9,300-odd users during a trial run and from 4,936 citizens. In the December 2025 to July trial, eligibility was checked through the Government24 app at Jeju Air and Lotte World. When users said installing the app and signing up was a hassle, the ministry rebuilt the service so it runs on mobile web with only a QR code and simple authentication.

From August, eight organizations tested the revised service before the formal start: private operators Jeju Air, Mokpo Marine Cable Car, Everland Resort and Ossom Flex in Pyeongtaek, and public bodies Gyeonggi Transportation Corporation, Bucheon Urban Corporation, High1 Resort and the Korea Sports Industry Development Corporation.

The service covers 23 categories, including multi-child households, place of residence, basic livelihood recipients, people with disabilities, senior citizens, national merit recipients and single-parent families. The ministry plans to keep adding categories.

"The simple verification service using QR codes is an administrative service designed by the people's opinions and completed in their daily lives," Interior Minister Youn Ho-jung said. "We will keep developing the service so that people can feel on the ground the people-sovereign government, in which citizens own the policies, and the AI democratic government that changes lives with artificial intelligence and data."