Preliminary Candidate Lee Byung-hoon Proposes Introduction of Interest-Free Repayment System for Youth Student Loans

Byeonghun Lee, Preliminary Candidate for Dongnam District, Gwangju Metropolitan City, Democratic Party of Korea

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters, Reporter Yoon Jamin] Lee Byung-hoon, a preliminary candidate for the Democratic Party of Korea in Gwangju Metropolitan City Dongnam-eul, pledged on the 18th to ease the social burden on young people by amending the "Special Act on Repayment of Student Loans After Employment" for the sake of "debt-free youth."

Candidate Lee Byung-hoon said, "In the reality where high tuition fees lead to student loans, about 627,000 people take out student loans every year and enter society burdened with debt," adding, "After university students graduate with student loans, they have to start repaying the loan interest regardless of employment status, but the interest alone exceeds 2 million won annually. Many unemployed young people cannot repay the interest, causing their debt to increase and becoming credit delinquents, which is regrettable."

To address this, Candidate Lee plans to allow young people to enter society stably by revising the conditions for "repayment after employment loans," expanding the current income bracket condition from the top 80% to all students, and permitting graduate students to access "repayment after employment student loans," thereby enabling young people to receive interest reductions during their job preparation period and enter society more securely.

He stated, "Currently, more than half of the students do not receive benefits to ease the burden of tuition fees," and added, "Although the national scholarship expanded from 1.7527 trillion won in 2012 to 3.5742 trillion won in 2017, as of the first semester of 2018, only 40.7% of students received national scholarships, which is less than half of the enrolled students, and only 29.5% (644,348 students) receive scholarships covering more than half of their tuition fees. Therefore, the current scope of national scholarship recipients should be expanded."

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