'Collaborative Budget' Established to Support Youth... New 'Housing Stability Scholarship' for Low-Income Groups Introduced

Economic Ministers' Meeting Held on the 21st

Inter-Ministerial Collaboration to Enhance Youth Policy Experience
Advancing Tasks in Education, Employment, and Asset Formation

The government will identify inter-ministerial collaborative tasks and promote four key focus areas to enhance the perceived effectiveness of youth policies and allocate the budget efficiently. In the process of reducing the burden of long-distance commuting and housing costs for low-income university students, a Housing Stability Scholarship will be newly established.

On the 21st, the government announced the "Collaborative Budget Promotion Plan for Youth Future Leap" at the Economic Ministers' Meeting chaired by Choi Sang-mok, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance.

The government diagnosed that systematic budget allocation is necessary as various youth policies are being promoted by multiple ministries. It is necessary to allocate the budget efficiently by focusing on projects with high youth demand and high performance to increase policy effectiveness and perceived impact.

Accordingly, the government will reflect the evaluation results and execution performance of youth policies in the third year of the Yoon Suk-yeol administration and reorganize similar and overlapping projects. The focus will be on enhancing self-sustainability rather than cash support while examining youth policy demands. In particular, inter-ministerial collaborative tasks will be identified and reinvested in four key focus areas: ▲education ▲jobs ▲asset formation and housing ▲strengthening collaboration foundations.

On the 2nd, the '2024 Saessak (SeSAC) Job Festival' was held at Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP) in Jung-gu, Seoul. This is unrelated to the article. [Image source=Yonhap News]

To support asset formation and housing, a Housing Stability Scholarship will be newly established. By linking information among ministries such as the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, housing costs will be supported for low-income (basic and near-poverty) university students who have difficulty commuting long distances. Benefits for subscribing to the Youth Leap Account will also be increased, including the introduction of partial withdrawal services before maturity. Customized asset consulting services for youth will be provided through professional consultants.

Additionally, the monthly payment limit for the Soldiers' Tomorrow Preparation Savings for military personnel will be raised, and upon maturity, the savings can be temporarily deposited into the Youth Housing Dream Subscription Account. If the subscription account wins a lottery for housing, the Youth Housing Dream Loan will enable the purchase of up to 80% of the sale price at a minimum interest rate of 2.2%.

In the education sector, job linkage will be strengthened. As the university major elective system expands next year, career exploration programs for lower-year students (customized employment services for enrolled students) will be expanded. In response to the trend of increasing time from university graduation to employment, a specialized employment support program for 60,000 unemployed graduates will also be newly established.

To support employment, efforts to boost the motivation and capabilities of youth who have given up job searching will be expanded. The Ministry of Employment and Labor will expand youth work experience programs and specialized work experiences based on each ministry’s expertise to meet diverse demands. To this end, an integrated platform will be built where information on work experience programs can be viewed in one place. Support will also be strengthened to discover youth-friendly small and medium-sized enterprises and help youth settle in regional companies where they are employed.

To strengthen the collaboration foundation for youth policies, information on youth policies from all ministries and regions will be provided together at 17 regional youth centers (offline) and an integrated platform (online). Sector-specific youth policies will be organically linked and promoted, and sectoral consultative bodies among government ministries and agencies will continue to operate. When central ministries evaluate youth policies, they will assign grades by task and actively reflect these results in the budget review for the following year.

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