1년간 예산 절반도 못 쓴 ‘양육비 선지급제’…복잡한 신청 절차 완화해야

The 'Child Support Advance Payment Scheme,' which first started in July last year, was supposed to provide financial assistance to families with children under 18 who had not received child support. However, despite the scheme's initial rollout, only 77.3 million won out of a budgeted 162 billion won was actually disbursed. The government aimed to support 9300 households averaging 1,350,000 children, but only managed to assist 4983 households with 7,880 children over the course of the year.

The scheme allows for parents to receive a monthly payment of 20,000 won per child until they reach adulthood, with the amount returned to the non-custodial parent. The government made some adjustments to the requirements to make it easier for families to apply. The critical issue now is to improve the estimation of demand and the budget planning process, as the initial support was only half of what was planned.

Additionally, the system needs to strengthen its collection mechanism to recover the 6.4 billion won out of the 77.3 million won disbursed.