Improvement in Calculation Method Reflecting Number of Children in Multi-Child Families for National Scholarship

Kwonikwi "Recommendation to Reflect Economic Differences by Number of Children... Ministry of Education Accepts"
"Proportional Personal Deductions for Three or More Children When Calculating Income Level"

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Moon Chaeseok] The government has improved the system to reflect economic differences according to the number of children when providing national scholarships to families with three or more children.

On the 17th, the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission announced that it recommended the Ministry of Education to reflect the number of children when calculating the recognized income amount for national scholarship support, and the Ministry of Education accepted this recommendation.

The national scholarship is an income-linked scholarship provided by the government to students whose income and assets are below a certain level to alleviate the tuition burden of university students. Until now, the threshold for the support range was based on the median income of a '4-person household' (5,121,080 KRW this year) multiplied by a certain factor. This method did not reflect economic differences according to the number of children at all, raising issues of fairness. For example, a 4-person household with 2 children and a 5-person household with 3 or more children fall into the same support range if they have the same recognized income amount.

Accordingly, the Ministry of Education improved the calculation method so that unmarried applicants with three or more siblings, including themselves, apply a recognized income amount with personal deductions introduced during income and asset investigation. A deduction of 400,000 KRW per child from the third child onward is applied. For example, if a child from a 4-child family applies for the national scholarship and the sum of the income evaluation amount and the income conversion amount of assets is 10,800,000 KRW, then 400,000 KRW each for the third and fourth child (total 800,000 KRW) is deducted, and the final recognized income amount is calculated as 10,000,000 KRW.

Yang Jongsam, Director of the Policy Improvement Bureau at the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission, said, "The Commission will continue to strive to ensure that citizens' opinions received through proactive administrative citizen applications are reflected in policies through a fast-track method for rights protection."

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