The city’s ‘companion service’ aims to help single-person households move house or visit hospital
2-MIN READ2-MIN ListenSCMP’s Asia deskPublished: 2:28pm, 13 Apr 2026In South Korea’s capital, more than one in three people live alone, creating headaches when it comes time to visit hospital or simply move home.But Seoul has a solution: a “companion service” that dispatches helpers to assist solo residents with tasks that are hard to manage without a second pair of hands.
On Sunday, the city’s government announced that the programme, which began more than four years ago as a hospital escort service, would soon be expanded to cover moving day logistics and emotional support, The Korea Herald reported.
“Any Seoul resident living alone can use the companion services,” Welfare Policy Director Yoon Jong-jang said in a statement.
“We will continue to expand tailored support so that people can manage daily life without difficulty as the number of single-person households grows.”
Single-person households accounted for about 36 per cent of all South Korean households as of 2024, according to a Korea Times report from December last year – making it the most common living arrangement in the country.
