The window of a house in a neighborhood in Yeongdeungpo District, western Seoul, mostly with one-room houses, is covered with a plastic layer to fend off the cold, on Dec. 4, 2025. [YONHAP]

The window of a house in a neighborhood in Yeongdeungpo District, western Seoul, mostly with one-room houses, is covered with a plastic layer to fend off the cold, on Dec. 4, 2025. [YONHAP]

 
Government vouchers meant to help low-income households pay energy bills are falling short of addressing the actual needs of under-earning families — especially those already behind on utility payments.
 
According to data released Sunday by Democratic Party lawmaker Park Ji-hye, 40,052 households received electricity restriction notices between 2020 and 2024, despite being eligible for energy discounts as low-income, disabled or socially disadvantaged residents.
 
 
These households had their electricity capped at a maximum of 660 watts — barely enough to power basic appliances — after failing to pay bills for more than three months. On average, some 8,000 vulnerable households each year are pushed into limited electricity access. The largest number of such cases occurred in Gyeonggi, followed by Seoul and Incheon.
 
Though the government provides energy vouchers to help vulnerable households get through extreme heat and cold, the current system has major limitations. One of the biggest is that the vouchers cannot be used to pay off overdue bills. This means that households with restricted electricity access — already unable to operate heaters — are effectively excluded from benefiting from the program.
 
“The power keeps cutting out, so I only run appliances like the refrigerator when I can,” said a single parent living in Seobinggo-dong, central Seoul, with two children. Designated as a basic livelihood recipient and eligible for electricity discounts from Korea Electric Power Corporation, the family still falls months behind on bills. 
 
“My kids and I wear five layers of clothing at home instead of turning on the heater,” they said. “I’m just afraid the electricity will be shut off completely.” 
 

A water purifier is wrapped in a blanket inside a building in a neighborhood in Yongsan District, central Seoul, mostly with one-room houses, on Dec. 4, 2025. [YONHAP]

A water purifier is wrapped in a blanket inside a building in a neighborhood in Yongsan District, central Seoul, mostly with one-room houses, on Dec. 4, 2025. [YONHAP]

 
The scale of the issue is growing. While the energy voucher budget more than doubled from 230.6 billion won ($159 million) in 2022 to 517.2 billion won this year, the voucher usage rate dropped from 84.2 percent in 2020 to 69.9 percent in 2024. In other words, more households are receiving the benefit, but fewer are able to actually use it. The number of voucher recipients rose from 670,000 in 2019 to 1.28 million in 2024, underscoring that the country’s energy-poor population is expanding despite increased support.
 
“There are still many vulnerable households who, even with energy vouchers, rely on a single electric heating pad and wear coats indoors,” said Kim Min-jeong, a team lead at the ChorogUsan for Children, a children’s foundation. “In homes with young children, poor heating conditions directly impact their ability to study and rest. Many live in aging homes with poor insulation and inefficient heating systems, creating a vicious cycle of recurring need for voucher support every year.”
 
A recent bill aims to address the problem more fundamentally. On Friday, Rep. Park introduced a bill to support those in need of energy support, which proposes an integrated framework combining in-kind aid like vouchers with structural improvements such as insulation upgrades and heating system replacements to their homes.
 
“The government has made efforts, but the current system has clear limits,” Park said. “To truly resolve energy poverty, we need to go beyond stopgap aid and focus on long-term solutions like improving energy efficiency in vulnerable homes.”

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY JEONG JONG-HOON [[email protected]]