Ministry of Gender Equality and Family to Increase Next Year's Budget by 14.5%... Allocates 1.4115 Trillion Won

Strengthening Support for Single-Parent Families and Adolescent Parents, Establishing Specialized Services for Single-Person Households

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family announced on the 1st that it has prepared next year's budget with a 14.5% increase compared to this year, focusing on universal family services such as support for low-income single-parent families, one-person households, and children of multicultural families, strengthening the social safety net for out-of-school youth and at-risk youth, and preventing career interruptions by maintaining women's employment. Next year's budget is 1.4115 trillion won, an increase of 179 billion won.

The Ministry will raise the monthly child-rearing allowance for single-parent families receiving livelihood benefits from 100,000 won to 200,000 won and apply a 30% deduction of earned and business income to low-income single-parent families, expanding the number of child-rearing support recipients from 204,000 to 221,000. In response to the increase in one-person households, it will provide life-cycle services to alleviate loneliness and isolation and support the formation of social networks, and establish a social inclusion safety net for multicultural family children, including emotional stability, career and employment support, and school readiness learning support.

Additionally, the Ministry will strengthen the youth social safety net and expand the foundation for youth activities and protection. It will newly develop online educational content for elementary and middle school age groups and enhance career and job experience programs for self-reliance support, while expanding local government youth safety net teams from 15 to 20 to strengthen the youth social safety net. The meal cost per youth admitted to youth shelters will also be raised from 2,644 won to 3,500 won to support their healthy growth.

Notably, starting next year, the government will provide sanitary product purchase vouchers to vulnerable female youth aged 9 to 10 (currently supported for ages 11 to 18). Furthermore, to establish a diverse activity base for youth, the National Youth Ecology Center will be completed in the second half of 2022, and support will be provided for infrastructure installation to ensure the successful hosting of the 2023 World Scout Jamboree.

Protection and Support for Female Victims of Violence ... Expansion of Women's Economic Participation

The Ministry will expand digital sex crime regional specialized counseling centers from 7 to 10 and extend free legal support from victims of domestic and sexual violence to stalking victims. Following the enactment of the Anti-Human Trafficking Act, it will promote policy research and pilot operation of a central rights protection agency to establish a foundation for anti-human trafficking policies, and support public sector gender equality innovation through awareness improvement projects for preventing sexual harassment and sexual violence in public institutions, specialized small-scale training for senior officials, and secondary victimization prevention training for investigative agencies.

The budget to expand women's economic participation has also been increased. The Ministry will promote employment retention subsidies* for Saeil female interns and companies, pilot projects to prevent women's career interruptions and maintain initial career continuity, and support the operation of the UN Women’s Gender Equality Center (UN Women CGE) to contribute to promoting gender equality in the Asia-Pacific region and the international community.

Minister Jeong Young-ae said, “The 2022 Ministry of Gender Equality and Family budget focuses on stabilizing the lives and supporting the independence of single-parent families, supporting women's employment retention, and providing universal and integrated services for diverse families to strengthen the social safety net. At this time of overcoming COVID-19 and preparing for a new leap forward, we will do our best policy efforts to alleviate the difficulties of the people and improve their quality of life.”