S. Korea to expand support for single parent households

With families becoming increasingly diverse in South Korea, support for single-parent households will be expanded, including the introduction of a new budget to increase housing provisions and the amount of the advance payment system for child support.

Next year's budget to support single-parent families will be 590.1 billion won ($440 million), an increase of 46 billion won or 8.5 percent from this year's budget, according to the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family on Monday.

To ease the burden of raising children for low-income, single-parent families earning below 63 percent of the median income, the Gender Ministry will increase the current child support amount from 210,000 won per child per month to 230,000 won.

Young single parents, aged 24 or below and earning less than 65 percent of the median income, will also see an increase in child support money from the current 350,000 won per child per month to 370,000 won.

Additionally, the school supplies subsidy of 93,000 won per child per year provided to low-income single-parent families with middle and high school students, will be expanded to include elementary school students.

To provide housing stability and a safe child-rearing environment for low-income single-parent families, the number of rental housing units provided will be expanded from 306 to 326, and deposit support will be increased from the current maximum of 10 million won to 11 million won to reduce the rent burden.

The budget for the child support advance payment system will be expanded to 16.2 billion won, giving 200,000 won to families per child per month. Launched in March, the system provides support money to households that do not receive child support from non-custodial parents. The state then collects the support money from the non-custodial parent later.

“We will expand support for single-parent families to help them stabilize their lives and help their children grow up healthy. Now that we have secured the budget to introduce the child support advance payment system, we will make the necessary preparations for its implementation,” said Vice Family Minister Shin Young-sook.