Gwangju City Youth Budget Cut by 33% and City Council Maternity and Childcare Allowance Reduced by 47%
[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Yoon Jamin] The Minsaengdang Gwangju Metropolitan City Party has urged the Gwangju Metropolitan Council to withdraw its budget cuts for childbirth and childcare allowances.
On the 4th, the Minsaengdang Gwangju City Party stated in a press release, "Withdraw the cuts to the youth budget and childbirth and childcare budget."
The city party pointed out, "Following the significant cuts to the youth budget by Gwangju City in 2021, the Gwangju Metropolitan Council cut nearly half of the 48.8 billion KRW budget for childbirth and childcare allowances, reducing it by 23.258 billion KRW," and asked, "Does Gwangju have no 'future'?"
The Gwangju childbirth and childcare allowance previously included support such as ▲hospital expenses for infants and toddlers (up to 500,000 KRW per year) ▲customized mother boxes (local currency worth 100,000 KRW) ▲childbirth congratulatory money (100,000 KRW for the first child, 200,000 KRW for the second, 600,000 KRW for the third and beyond) to help increase the declining birth rate each year.
However, to make Gwangju a better place to have and raise children, these were integrated into the Gwangju-type basic childcare allowance, consisting of ▲birth congratulatory money (1 million KRW for the first child, 1.5 million KRW for the second, 2 million KRW for the third and beyond) ▲childcare allowance (200,000 KRW monthly for up to 24 months, targeting infants under 24 months), expected to reduce the parenting burden on parents.
With the introduction of the childbirth and childcare allowance, it is a policy that can support parents' rational childcare plans through actual allowance payments and is expected to have effects on population inflow and settlement through mid- to long-term support of up to 24 months. It has received much interest and expectation from many parents of infants and toddlers, prospective parents, newlyweds, and others raising children or planning for a second child.
The Minsaengdang Gwangju City Party argued, "The Gwangju Metropolitan Council cut 47.66% of the budget, citing reasons such as the allowance of less than 10 million KRW per person being insufficient to effectively increase the birth rate and side effects like disguised address changes for childbirth incentives, even though increasing the budget would only improve 'effectiveness'."
They also pointed out, "Earlier, Gwangju City cut the youth budget from 45.8 billion KRW in 2020 to 30.7 billion KRW in 2021, a reduction of 15.1 billion KRW (33%)," and added, "For the youth, who are likely to feel relatively deprived due to the already reduced youth budget, the cuts to the childbirth and childcare budget effectively took away another hope from the young people who must bear childbirth and childcare responsibilities."
They continued, "Gwangju City allocated its largest-ever budget of 6.2817 trillion KRW in 2021," but emphasized, "Policies that could provide even a little help to young people's lives are being cut competitively by both Gwangju City and the council."
Furthermore, they stated, "We cannot help but ask whether Gwangju City and the Metropolitan Council have the will to establish policies and budgets for future generations," and added, "They must withdraw the cuts to the youth budget and childbirth and childcare budget and take a more active role in securing livelihood budgets for future generations."
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