Home > National > Social Affairs

Gov't to launch trial program addressing welfare blind spot — young adults

Published: 14 Sep. 2025, 15:12

Young people sit at a job center in Seoul on Sept. 10. [YONHAP]

A 20-something surnamed Kim, an alias, left home to find work and become financially independent from parents struggling with alcoholism. However, even after Kim left, their parents spent all the basic living allowance payments issued in Kim's name, leaving nothing. Without even minimal financial support, Kim now faces severe difficulties both in daily life and in searching for a job.

Park (alias), another person in their 20s, left home due to religious conflict with their parents, only to be diagnosed with cancer and undergo unexpected surgery. Left unable to work, Park began moving between homeless shelters. Despite these hardships, Park has not been able to apply for a basic living allowance due to a lack of documentation proving estrangement from their parents.

To address cases like these — where young people in poverty live apart from their parents — the Ministry of Health and Welfare is launching a pilot program that allows separate payments of the basic living allowance to young adults in certain regions.

The ministry announced Sunday that it would begin a six-month trial of separate payments for eligible young adults, defined as those aged 19 to 29 who are part of a household receiving the basic living allowance but reside apart from their parents. The simulation will be conducted in cooperation with the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs as part of an ongoing study launched in April aimed at identifying and closing gaps in welfare coverage for young people.

Currently, the basic living allowance is provided based on household units, and unmarried children under the age of 30 are counted as part of their parents’ household — even if they live separately. As a result, young adults who move out often cannot be recognized as independent applicants. Even when one of their parents is a beneficiary, the full allowance is paid to the household head. If the parent fails to send money to their child, the child may be left with no support.

A student passes by job notices put up inside a university campus in Seoul on Sept. 10. [YONHAP]

Under the pilot project — officially titled the “Study on Improvements to the National Basic Livelihood Security System’s Eligibility Criteria for Youth Households” — the government will separately disburse the allowance to qualifying applicants between the ages of 19 and 39. If a person in this age group lives apart from their parents and applies for the separate payment, they can receive the portion of the benefit corresponding to their individual eligibility. The ministry hopes this will ease the financial burden faced by low-income youth whose minimum living needs are not being met.

For instance, if both parents and the child have no income or assets and qualify for the allowance, the current system provides around 1.6 million won ($1,150) per month to the parents — even if the child lives separately, such as in Seoul, while the parents reside in Busan. Under the pilot program, if the child applies for a separate payment, the parents would receive about 1.25 million won as a two-person household, and the child would receive approximately 760,000 won.

The government also plans to clarify and expand the current criteria that allow for exceptions, such as in cases of family estrangement. This would help local authorities identify and support youth in severe economic distress, even if their parents are not welfare recipients.

Through a public application process, four local governments were selected for the simulation: Gyeyang District in Incheon, Dalseo District in Daegu, Cheorwon County in Gangwon and Haenam County in South Jeolla. The trial is scheduled to begin in September and will run through February 2026.

“We are looking for ways to support young people who must shoulder the burden of survival on their own without help from their parents,” said Lee Seu-ran, first vice minister of health and welfare. “By implementing this pilot at the local level, we hope to develop effective and practical solutions to close the welfare blind spots experienced by young people in poverty.”

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY RHEE ESTHER [[email protected]]