How can the debt-relief support program, Lee's pick to tackle debt-driven hardship, spread nationwide?

A man in his 40s visited a debt-relief support center in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province this year while struggling financially after falling into credit default. Unable to afford regular meals, he came seeking food staples such as instant rice and ramyun. Staff connected him with a social worker, and a debt restructuring process is now underway through a financial welfare counseling center. As the program expands to communities across the country — including Sancheong-gun in South Gyeongsang Province and Yeongam-gun in South Jeolla Province — it is drawing attention as a welfare model linking food support with financial counseling.

President Lee raised the issue of suicide linked to long-term debt at a Cabinet meeting Tuesday, calling for wider adoption of the debt-relief support center model as a platform to support vulnerable groups. Amid that push, the National Assembly's research service has concluded that the program must broaden its private-sector funding base significantly to ensure long-term viability. The body said companies need stronger institutional incentives to donate food — including expanded liability protections, tiered tax deductions for donations to remote areas, and logistics cost support.

According to the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the debt-relief support center pilot launched in December last year with 56 locations across 53 municipal districts and has since expanded to 280 locations in 158 districts. Over five months, the program provided goods to 97,926 people, referred 10,255 of them to community welfare centers and identified 1,553 households in crisis. The program supplies food items such as instant rice and toothpaste, along with daily necessities, to people facing financial hardship — without requiring complex applications or proof of income.

The program's nationwide expansion is being credited with helping close the food welfare gap between regions. Under the existing food bank system, food donations and logistics infrastructure have been concentrated in the Greater Seoul area, leaving vulnerable populations outside the metropolitan region with comparatively limited access to food support. National food bank operating statistics bear this out: while total donations grew to 1.263 trillion won (about $836 million) over the past five years, 51.2 percent of all donated food resources were concentrated in the metropolitan area.

The National Assembly Research Service recently assessed the program in a report titled "Innovations in the Food Donation System to Guarantee Basic Food Rights," calling the program "a last-resort social safety net that provides immediate food and daily necessities to households in crisis." However, it cautioned that "a donation system relying solely on private goodwill cannot fully fill the gaps in the food safety net," and called for placing the program on a sustainable footing. The report recommended drawing on international examples to reform relevant regulations and expand digital infrastructure to close the food welfare gap between regions.

The debt-relief support program currently operates on 11.6 billion won in private donations and 10.7 billion won in government funding to support households in acute crisis. Of the private funding, Shinhan Financial Group contributes 10 billion won — roughly 86 percent of the total private share. The remaining corporate donations amount to about 1 billion won. The program's heavy reliance on a single corporate donor limits its long-term sustainability, analysts say, and institutional mechanisms are needed to draw in a broader range of private contributors.

Expanding food donations will also require broader reforms to tax and logistics policy. The research service recommended applying an Italian-style model under which companies that donate to logistics-disadvantaged regions receive tiered tax deductions, steering private resources toward non-metropolitan areas. The body noted that during the pilot program, the National Assembly flagged a low welfare service linkage rate of 9.8 percent — reflecting not just a shortage of goods but also the absence of the administrative and logistics systems needed to support them.

The report also proposed establishing a "food infrastructure fund" to narrow the food welfare gap between regions. Drawing on the British model, it called for prioritizing the allocation of cold-chain equipment — including refrigerated and frozen vehicles — to underserved areas, and institutionalizing government subsidies for facility maintenance costs to build out logistics infrastructure beyond the metropolitan area. The research service said programs like this "can only be completed when active government budget investment and private participation turn together like two wheels of a cart."

The report also raised the need to ease donors' legal liability burden. It recommended expanding liability protections for food donations made without intent or gross negligence, citing the US Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act as a model. Under current rules, donors must prove the absence of gross negligence themselves when an incident occurs, and objective safety verification systems — such as public hygiene inspections and digital traceability — along with clear liability standards remain lacking. The research service said liability protections for unintentional incidents should be spelled out clearly "so that companies can participate as partners in the national food safety net with confidence."