Lee Jae-myung's 'Youth Basic Income' 150 Billion Won to Be Expedited in the First Half of the Year

[Asia Economy (Suwon) = Reporter Lee Young-gyu] Gyeonggi Province has decided to expedite the disbursement of 150 billion KRW budget for the 'Youth Basic Income,' a key youth policy of Governor Lee Jae-myung, in the first half of the year to support young people and small business owners struggling due to the spread of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19).

Gyeonggi Province announced on the 19th that it plans to pay 75 billion KRW of the Youth Basic Income budget for the first half of this year by May and is preparing related procedures to also expedite the disbursement of the second half budget of 75 billion KRW in June.

Accordingly, the province plans to receive applications for the second quarter Youth Basic Income, which was originally scheduled to be implemented around July 20 after accepting applications from June, starting from early April and to make payments in early May. This is about two months earlier than the original plan.

The Youth Basic Income has been paid in local currency on the 20th of the month following quarterly applications to 24-year-old youths residing in Gyeonggi Province who have lived continuously for more than three years or whose total days of residence amount to more than 10 years.

This early payment is in response to the worsening employment conditions for youth and business management environment for small business owners due to the spread of COVID-19.

Lee Byung-woo, Director of Welfare at the province, said, "We hope that the early payment of Youth Basic Income will help young people and small business owners overcome the national difficulties together," adding, "Furthermore, based on the meaning and achievements of the 'Basic Income' policy first implemented by Gyeonggi Province, we expect active consensus-building on the currently discussed 'Disaster Basic Income' as well."

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