Gov't to strengthen oversight of meal cards for children in need

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The government will strengthen oversight of meal cards issued for children in need, officials said Wednesday, as a series of misuse cases were found, including using the cards to buy cigarettes and alcohol.

Meal cards are issued to children of low-income or single-parent families and other needy kids younger than 18 to make sure that they are fed without skipping meals. The cards can be used just like debit cards to pay for food at restaurants, bakeries and convenience stores.

The office for government policy coordination and the welfare ministry conducted a joint inspection between November and April to see whether the cards are used as intended, and found a series of problems, such as parents using the cards to buy non-food items like detergent and tissues.

In some cases, parents used the cards to buy cigarettes and alcohol, as unlike convenience stores, some small independent grocery stores still do not have a system denying payment with meal cards for such restricted items, officials said.

Dozens of parents were also found to have made false payments totaling 170 million won ($110,800) with meal cards at restaurants they run. In other cases, meal cards were used for non-food purposes at places like hair salons, bars and internet cafes.

Officials said the government will come up with measures to prevent such misuse, including expanding the installation of payment denial systems for restricted items at small grocery stores and toughening punishment of store owners cooperating with attempts to abuse the cards.

"As local governments have focused more on issuing the cards, they have fallen short of making sure they are used as intended," Kim Young-su, first vice minister for government policy coordination, said. "As new local governments are set to take office, it is necessary to review the entire child meal system."