Daejeon Daedeok-gu Abolishes 'Children's Allowance'... Negative Resident Perception Amid Populist Controversy

[Asia Economy (Daejeon) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] The 'Children's Allowance' payment project in Daedeok-gu, Daejeon will be abolished at the end of this year.

According to Daedeok-gu on the 21st, the Children's Allowance project, which started in January, provides 20,000 KRW per month to students from 4th to 6th grade in elementary school (ages 10 to 12).

However, recently, the Daedeok-gu Council did not include any budget for the Children's Allowance payment project in next year's main budget proposal, leading to the project's abolition after just one year of implementation.

The exclusion of the budget for the Children's Allowance project appears to be influenced by the background of the project's introduction and the results of a recent survey conducted among Daedeok-gu residents.

First, this project was controversial from the start as a populist measure. It was pushed hastily by the former district mayor (Democratic Party) three months before the June 1 local elections last year, drawing criticism as a populist project aimed at the election.

For the same reason, when the ordinance for the Children's Allowance payment was enacted in June last year, the district council's standing committee initially rejected the ordinance.

However, council members from the Democratic Party, which held the majority of seats, forcibly submitted the ordinance, and despite opposition from the People Power Party, the ordinance was abruptly passed, leading to the project's implementation.

At that time, the People Power Party harshly criticized the Democratic Party for pushing a populist project aimed at the election, ignoring the fact that Daedeok-gu's financial independence ratio was only 13.8%.

Residents' perception of the Children's Allowance project is also negative. In a recent survey of 841 residents, 51.3% expressed a negative view of the project, and 40.5% responded that the allowance should not continue to be paid.

Additionally, 70.4% of respondents supported pursuing other projects instead of the Children's Allowance project. This indicates that the majority of residents have a negative perception of continuing the project.

Choi Chung-gyu, mayor of Daedeok-gu, stated, "The Children's Allowance project has been criticized as a 'populist policy' because it requires about 1 billion KRW annually in a district with poor financial independence. Daedeok-gu will strive to discover and promote effective educational support projects that can reduce educational disparities among students rather than providing consumption-oriented allowances."

Meanwhile, the Daedeok-gu Council recently approved a main budget of 528.3 billion KRW for next year at a plenary session. This is an increase of 9.3 billion KRW compared to last year's main budget of 518.9 billion KRW.

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