Yoon Jun-byeong Proposes Public Interest Allowance Support Act to Provide 100,000 Won Monthly to Farmers and Fishermen

[Asia Economy Reporter Wondara] Yoon Jun-byeong, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea (Jeongeup·Gochang), has proposed a bill to enable farmers and fishermen to receive a public interest allowance of at least 100,000 KRW per month.

On the 4th, Representative Yoon introduced the "Farmers and Fishermen Public Interest Allowance Support Act" as the main content of the bill.

According to this bill, farmers and fishermen who have been affiliated with an agricultural cooperative corporation or a fishery cooperative corporation for more than one year can receive at least 100,000 KRW monthly in cash or local gift certificates. However, those whose comprehensive income from non-agricultural and fishery activities in the year prior to application exceeds 37 million KRW are excluded from eligibility. Additionally, individuals who have been penalized within the past 3 to 5 years for violations related to agriculture and fisheries laws, such as fraudulent receipt of direct payments or violations of the Livestock Epidemic Prevention Act, are also ineligible to receive the public interest allowance.

The review of public interest allowance recipients will be handled by the Farmers and Fishermen Public Interest Allowance Review Committee established within local governments, and the national government will support between 50% and 90% of the allowance payment costs.

Representative Yoon stated, "The income of farming and fishing households is only 65% to 80% of that of urban workers, and due to rapid aging, it is difficult to sustain agriculture and fisheries independently. In keeping with the promise made to the residents of Jeongeup and Gochang during the last general election, I have introduced this bill as my first legislative proposal to guarantee the public value of agriculture and fisheries."

Meanwhile, according to the 2018 Statistics Korea survey on agricultural and fishery household economies provided by Representative Yoon’s office, the average income per farming household was 42.07 million KRW, and per fishing household was 51.48 million KRW, which are only 65.5% and 80% respectively compared to urban worker household incomes. The proportion of elderly population aged 65 or older was 44.7% in farming households, 36.3% in fishing households, and 42.3% in forestry households. The bill was co-sponsored by 30 lawmakers including Hong Young-pyo, In Jae-geun, Jeon Hae-cheol, Ahn Kyu-baek, Seo Sam-seok, Park Chan-dae, Nam In-soon, and Yang Jeong-sook.

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