Democratic Party presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung pledged to pay 1 million won a year to young people between the ages of 19 and 29 and allocate a significant portion of the housing supply to young people.
Candidate Lee announced this pledge at the Future Party ‘Blue Soda’ in Mapo-gu, Seoul on the 22nd, saying, “Resolving the youth problem is the beginning of solving the social and structural problems of Korea.”
Specifically, the eight major pledges are △Support for young people to buy a home △Basic income for youth △Introduction of youth loans and savings △Expansion of job opportunities for youth △Expansion of support for military personnel △Support for college students education expenses △Support for psychological support for blind spots △Youth policy budget decisions.
First of all, Candidate Lee announced that he would supply a large amount of housing and allocate a significant portion of the supply to young people.
The plan is to supply the general housing type, which is given priority to young people, the ‘everyone house type’ where people live at a low rent and then sell at the initial sale price 10 years later, and the ‘equity accumulation type’ housing in which they accumulate their own shares little by little.
Also, when moving in later, ‘benefit-sharing’, where half of the housing price increase is shared with the public; also promised to supply.
Candidate Lee announced, “When a homeless person purchases a house for the first time in their life, financial restrictions will be eased and real estate acquisition tax will be reduced.”
In addition, by introducing a youth basic income, the plan is to provide 1 million won per year to young people between the ages of 19 and 29 starting next year.
Basic loans for youth and basic savings are also introduced by introducing basic finance for youth.
It is a promise to create a ‘basic savings’ with a higher interest rate than ordinary deposits, allowing you to borrow and repay money up to 10 million won at any time at the level of the bank interest rate for a long period of time with the ‘basic loan for youth’.
Candidate Lee also announced that he would mobilize all policy measures with the goal of raising the youth employment rate by 5 percentage points during his term.
Candidate Lee said, “Pushing to raise the mandatory ratio of youth employment in public institutions from 3% to 5% of the quota for each institution. We will expand it.”
The plan is to expand military service support and raise the monthly salary of soldiers during their tenure to 2 million won or more, which is the minimum wage. Regarding candidate Yoon Seok-yeol of People’s Power, who announced the same promise, he added, “We warmly welcome the passive candidate Yoon Seok-yeol’s acceptance of the promise.”
At the same time, he said that he would support the full tuition fee for acquiring qualifications required for employment in the military and allow the use of tablet PCs for self-development.
It also announced a promise to reduce the burden of education expenses by expanding support for university students. The goal is to allow all college students, regardless of family income and wealth, to use the ‘reimbursable student loan following employment’ system.
It also announced that it would implement the ‘Youth Crisis Overcoming 1:1 Project’ to help young people find and recover from various mental health problems, such as depression, suicidal thoughts, and feelings of isolation, at an early stage.
Finally, a senior secretary system in charge of youth policy is introduced and a special minister is appointed. The Youth Policy Coordination Committee will also be expanded under the Prime Minister’s Office.
Candidate Lee said, “We will secure youth representation by expanding participation and authority so that young people can directly participate and make decisions from policy design, budget formation, and execution.” I will make this decision myself,” he said.
“It is the role of established politics that is fundamentally responsible for the problems faced by today’s youth,” he said.