United Future Party: "Uniform 400,000 Won Child Allowance is Populism... Let's Selectively Pay 500,000 Won Each"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporters Lee Ji-eun and Kim Hye-min] The United Future Party criticized the 400,000 won child allowance included in the supplementary budget (추경) as 'populism' and emphasized the need for selective payment.

On the 10th, Lee Jong-bae, a member of the United Future Party, said to reporters after the party's floor strategy meeting, "The plan to provide 400,000 won in child allowance is to give all children under 7 the same 400,000 won worth of local love gift certificates or consumption coupons, which is a kind of populism."

He pointed out, "This supplementary budget does not include measures for families with children who have nowhere to leave their kids, and only provides the 400,000 won child allowance. The local love gift certificates received as child allowance do not have to be used immediately, can be used by anyone (not necessarily the child), and can even be used at gas stations, so we need to examine what kind of (childcare) effect this has."

Lee said, "Rather than that, I think it is necessary to reflect in the supplementary budget measures such as giving 500,000 won in cash, compensating companies suffering losses due to part-time work by dual-income couples, or dispatching helpers," explaining, "measures for caring for children at home without sending them to daycare centers or kindergartens."

Regarding the basic income proposals raised mainly by ruling party figures, he said, "That is pure populism," adding, "It costs a lot of money, and I don't understand why we should give basic income or why it should be given equally to everyone." On the mask issue, he said, "Since it is urgent to increase mask supply, the supplementary budget should provide answers to the public about the mask issue," and added, "We need to address the issues of supplying masks cheaply, hospital beds, disinfectants, and medical equipment through the supplementary budget."

Lee said, "The size of this supplementary budget is 11.7 trillion won, of which revenue is 3.2 trillion won and expenditure is 8.5 trillion won. It is hard to accept that 3.2 trillion won will be collected at the beginning of the year, so this needs to be examined carefully. He added, "There are projects unrelated to COVID-19 included in the expenditure, so it is necessary to scrutinize why they must be included."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.