Start with the remaining family-care allocation
This calculator helps parents and grandparents plan South Korea’s 2026 child disability family-care service using the child’s annual allocation and recorded use.
A child may need consistent care even after the subsidized allocation runs out.
Planning only the initial copay can leave the household unprepared for fully self-paid months at year end.
Compare the support exhaustion month, later costs and provider availability before requesting a schedule.
The tool uses Korean program rules and amounts in KRW.
It does not diagnose disability, select beneficiaries, approve overlapping benefits or reserve a caregiver.
Use confirmed information from the selection notice and responsible agency.
If selection, income or allocation remains unknown, you can review a hypothetical schedule, but the calculator withholds a complete plan estimate until the necessary conditions are confirmed.
2026 hours, income categories and copay
1,200 hours per child annually
This is the published general support reference for 2026.
The child’s actual allocation in the notice or provider record takes precedence.
An annual reference does not guarantee equal monthly bookings or staffing.
Ordinarily within 160 hours monthly
A concentrated month can require a separate exception even if plenty of annual support remains.
Check monthly exception approval separately from additional annual support approval.
2026 Korean child disability family-care hourly copay by confirmed income category| Confirmed income category | Within support | Beyond annual support |
|---|
| At or below 120% of median income | KRW 0 / h | KRW 12,800 / h |
| Above 120% of median income | KRW 5,120 / h (40%) | KRW 12,800 / h |
The full reference price is KRW 12,800 per hour; its 40% copay is KRW 5,120.
Exactly 120% belongs to the lower category.
Use the authority’s income assessment, rather than assuming that household wages alone determine entitlement to free service.
Income is deliberately selected from the notice; this calculator does not conduct an income or health-insurance-premium assessment.
Understand the inputs and prepare records
Selection and allocation
The care service targets a child under 18 with a registered severe disability who shares livelihood and residence with the household.
Age and registration alone do not confirm selection.
Ask the agency to confirm selection and review of existing services.
Replace the initial 1,200-hour reference with the actual base annual allocation.
Used, deducted and extra hours
Enter hours deducted from annual support immediately before the first planning month.
Keep earlier fully self-paid service separate from support hours.
Include cancellation-related deducted hours only as recorded by the provider.
Extra support hours increase the applied allocation only when their approval is confirmed.
Hourly price and additional fees
The default full hourly price is KRW 12,800.
If the agency confirms a different full price, enter it and confirm the quote.
Additional monthly fees are separate amounts from the same provider quote for both plans, applied only when that month includes service.
The calculator does not invent a national night or holiday surcharge.
Excess service and monthly exceptions
Select whether fully self-paid excess service is confirmed, unavailable or still unknown.
For a month above 160 requested hours, separately confirm the monthly exception.
Hours accept up to two decimals for budget planning; this does not establish the agency’s minimum booking or settlement unit.
Remaining-hours and copay formulas
- Applied allocation = base annual allocation + approved extra support hours
- Initial remaining = max(0, applied allocation − used or deducted support hours)
- Monthly supported hours = min(requested hours, previous remaining hours)
- Monthly excess hours = requested hours − supported hours
- Supported copay = supported hours × full hourly price × 0% or 40%
- Conditional excess-service cost = excess hours × full hourly price
Support is consumed in month order, so the same annual remainder is not assigned repeatedly to multiple months.
Monthly supported copay and excess-service cost are rounded to whole KRW before adding applicable fees and summing the period.
Hours are compared as integer hundredths internally: a 0.3-hour remainder consumed by 0.1 and 0.2 hours leaves exactly zero, avoiding floating-point excess hours.
A and B are alternative schedules with identical starting records.
Use by A does not reduce B’s starting allocation.
The result shows the difference in requested care hours alongside the cost difference.
A cheaper plan with fewer requested hours does not establish savings for the same amount of care.
How to use the calculator
- Read the notice: select confirmed selection and overlap-review status, and the income category at or below, or above, 120%.
- Match the ledger: enter the actual base allocation, approved extra allocation and deducted support hours before the first planning month.
- Confirm prices: check the full hourly price, separate monthly fees and service availability after annual support runs out.
- Enter two schedules: plan from the selected month through December of the same 2026 year.
Moving the start month later clears earlier planned entries; already consumed support belongs in the used-hours input.
- Review the outputs: check exhaustion, first excess month, conditional costs, monthly exception requirements and unserved hours.
- Ask the provider: save TXT or print the inputs and checklist, then confirm caregiver scheduling, prepayment and any extra approval.
Worked example: three months with 200 hours remaining
This is a fictional example with all required conditions assumed confirmed.
The child has a base allocation of 1,200 hours, has already used 1,000 hours, and is planning October through December without additional fees.
The income category is above 120%, the full price is KRW 12,800/h, and the provider can deliver fully self-paid excess service.
Plan A with 100 hours each month: support, remainder and household cost| Month | Requested h | Supported h | Excess h | Remaining h | Monthly cost |
|---|
| October | 100 | 100 | 0 | 100 | KRW 512,000 |
| November | 100 | 100 | 0 | 0 | KRW 512,000 |
| December | 100 | 0 | 100 | 0 | KRW 1,280,000 |
A: 100, 100 and 100 hours
The 200 supported hours cost KRW 1,024,000, and the 100 excess hours cost KRW 1,280,000.
The total is KRW 2,304,000.
Support is exhausted in November, with first excess service in December.
B: 100, 50 and 50 hours
All 200 requested hours fit within support and cost KRW 1,024,000.
A minus B is KRW 1,280,000, but B also requests 100 fewer care hours.
Check whether family availability or another permitted arrangement can cover that difference.
For the same A schedule at or below 120% of median income, supported copay is zero and only KRW 1,280,000 excess cost remains.
If 120 extra support hours are approved, all 300 planned hours fit within support, leaving 20 hours.
For the above-120% household, that version costs KRW 1,536,000.
Merely requesting extra support does not authorize its inclusion in the allocation.
Pending confirmation is different from a zero cost
Plan estimate
A complete plan estimate is available only when selection, income, allocation and any necessary exception, quote and excess-service conditions are confirmed.
It remains a budget based on the entered schedule, rather than an invoice, booking approval or guaranteed government payment.
Actual service and settlement can change it.
Hypothetical costs and unknown income
If a condition remains pending, the full estimate is withheld.
When the formula can be evaluated, the result separately shows a hypothetical cost assuming that the pending conditions are met.
Unknown income withholds supported copay and total costs entirely.
It does not appear as KRW 0; first obtain the income category from the responsible agency.
Unavailable service, exhaustion and exceptions
Choosing unavailable excess service removes its fee, but leaves those hours unserved.
An allocation already exhausted before planning is explicitly identified.
A month above 160 hours without an approved exception keeps the actual requested hours in a hypothetical ledger and withholds the full estimate, rather than silently reducing the request.
Three practical scheduling situations
Holidays or school closure
If care concentrates in one month, check both annual remainder and monthly exception approval.
Additional annual support does not automatically approve the monthly exception.
A caregiver’s treatment or work
When similar care hours are needed each month, identify the transition to full payment before year end.
A reduced B schedule also requires deciding who will actually provide the remaining necessary care.
Year-end scheduling
Available annual support is not the same as available caregiver bookings.
Ask the agency about year-end scheduling; do not convert the remainder into an assumed cash refund or automatically carry it into the following year.
Limits and the provider checklist
- Do not add general childcare, disability activity-support or developmental rehabilitation therapy benefits to this annual allocation.
Overlapping use needs review under each separate program.
- The official fee guide describes prepayment of the household copay as the principle.
Confirm the booking month, payment month, cancellation procedure, refunds and deducted hours with the provider.
- If the income category or allocation changes during planning, recalculate the later period with the new confirmed conditions.
Do not apply one category across a changed period without checking.
- The tool does not estimate a newly selected child’s prorated allocation, local extra support, minimum booking units or special night-service conditions.
- MOHW has announced a 2027 expansion to 1,320 annual hours, but this calculator ends at the 2026 year boundary.
Recheck the next year’s implemented guidance, prices and personal allocation before using new-year results.
Frequently asked questions
Does 1,200 hours guarantee 100 hours each month?
No.
The annual reference and monthly staffing or bookings are different.
Check the ordinary 160-hour monthly reference, actual allocation and caregiver availability before requesting a schedule.
Is excess service free for an at-or-below-120% household?
Free service applies within the support allocation.
The 2026 guide charges the full KRW 12,800/h for service beyond annual support regardless of income category.
Confirm that the provider can deliver those excess hours.
Which category includes exactly 120% of median income?
The at-or-below-120% category.
Choose the assessment in the selection notice or the agency’s confirmation, rather than estimating it from salary alone.
Can I include extra hours as soon as I request them?
Only approved extra support is included.
Unapproved extra hours are excluded and flagged for confirmation.
A monthly exception above 160 hours is a separate approval from additional annual support.
Why is the cost lower when excess service is unavailable?
The fee for undelivered excess hours is removed.
The care need is not solved: those hours appear as unserved.
Review another deliverable schedule or arrangement with the agency.
Are cancellation charges and prepaid refunds calculated?
They are not calculated automatically.
Check the official cancellation procedure and provider record for actual deducted support hours, then update used or deducted hours.
Confirm prepaid-balance and refund treatment separately.
Does this also approve activity-support or rehabilitation vouchers?
The calculator does not approve overlapping benefits or combine grants.
Disability activity-support has a separate monthly benefit structure, and developmental rehabilitation is a therapy service.
Tell each responsible agency which services the child currently uses.
Can I use the result for 2027 planning?
The current calculation is for months within 2026 only.
The announced 1,320-hour 2027 expansion must be distinguished from implemented guidance and individual approval.
Recheck next-year prices, conditions and allocation before planning that year.
Official sources, legislation and updates
Sources were checked on 2026-10-09.
The National Law Information OPEN API was used to verify Article 24 of the Act on Welfare Support for Children with Disabilities and Article 13 of its Enforcement Rule.
The Act is law ID 011443, MST 267353; the Enforcement Rule is law ID 011669, MST 280637.
Both verified texts are effective December 21, 2025 (2025-12-21).
The Enforcement Decree, MST 266527, is effective November 26, 2024 (2024-11-26).
The 1,200-hour limit, 40% share and fees are 2026 program-guidance figures, rather than fixed numbers directly written into the Act.
Actual service is administered through local selection, yearly program budgets and provider staffing.
Recheck annual hours, fees, monthly exceptions, personal allocation, overlapping-service review, booking units and settlement practices when rules or circumstances change.
Save the ledger and request a care schedule
Prepare the notice and provider records, then enter actual allocation, deducted support hours and monthly care needs.
Compare requested care quantity and unserved hours together with A and B’s costs.
The TXT ledger includes assumptions and confirmation items, making it useful for reviewing extra support, monthly exceptions and caregiver availability with the implementing agency.
Return to the calculator and plan the schedule