"Youth Legal Age Increase Requires Consultation"
President Yoon Suk-yeol is speaking at the seventeenth Public Discussion on Livelihoods with the People, held under the theme "With the Power of Youth! A Leaping Republic of Korea!" on the 5th at IBEX Studio in Gwangmyeong-si, Gyeonggi Province. [Image source=Yonhap News]
On the 5th, the Presidential Office estimated that the number of young caregivers benefiting from the government's promise to introduce advance child support payments for those struggling with child support issues will significantly increase from the current 953 to 24,000.
A senior official from the Presidential Office stated at an afternoon briefing, "If the advance child support payment system for single-parent families is institutionalized, 24,000 people will be able to benefit," confirming this estimate.
On the same day, President Yoon Suk-yeol held the 17th public discussion forum under the theme "Korea Leaping Forward with the Power of Youth" at Ibex Studio in Gwangmyeong City, Gyeonggi Province, emphasizing the need for various policy supports for young people who are responsible for the nation's future.
He introduced numerous policies, including expanding the eligibility for national scholarships, establishing housing scholarships, strengthening youth leap accounts, introducing the advance child support payment system, and making corporate childbirth support funds fully tax-exempt.
A Presidential Office official pointed out, "There is existing emergency support for single-parent family child support," but added, "However, this emergency support is only available to those with an income below 75% of the median income and who have illness or disability factors, so only 953 people actually received support last year." The government estimates that if advance payments are made to those with incomes below 100% of the median income, 24,000 people will benefit.
Regarding the required budget, the official explained, "Since the government advances the payments and then recovers them, it is not purely a budget expenditure," and added, "Because the government supports those in difficulty and addresses the issue of bad parents (parents who do not pay child support), it is hard to say that a large budget is required." It was described as a focused effort to discover areas where citizens think, "It would be good if I had this," without requiring a large budget.
Regarding the proposal to raise the legal age definition of "youth" from 34 to a maximum of 39, which was reviewed but later removed, a Presidential Office official said, "Changing the youth age should be implemented after sufficient consultation with various ministries," adding, "It is a matter that requires thorough discussion and agreement."
The official also reiterated the position that President Yoon's nationwide public discussion forums are "unrelated to the April general elections," in response to opposition party claims that they are election-related.
When asked about claims that the recent public discussion forums are election-driven and violate the president's political neutrality obligations, a Presidential Office official refuted, saying, "We are approaching this from the perspective of visiting areas with long-standing issues and concretely resolving them."
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