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Ways Seoul youth utilized their allowance (%) (first half of year)

Around half of Seoul-area younger adults who received a “youth allowance” were either seeking employment, starting their own business, or involved in the arts and other creative activities, a study shows. The city of Seoul argued that the results showed the effectiveness of the youth allowance experiment as a form of direct support to young people without an income.

According to a report published by the Seoul Metropolitan Government on May 14 for its “2018 Tracking Study on Participants in the 2017 Seoul City Youth Activity Support Project,” 38.7% of the 2,002 survey participants who received youth allowance payouts in 2017 subsequently found employment, while 2.1% started their own business. With the inclusion of the 6.4% of young people involved in the arts and other creative endeavors, the numbers showed nearly half of the youth allowance participants – 47.2% – successfully launching careers.

Researchers also found that the people who received the youth allowance reported higher levels of satisfaction every year. Recipients’ level of satisfaction with the program increased from 66.8% in 2016 to 73.3% in 2017 and then soared up to 99.4% last year. The reason that the largest percentage of respondents said they felt satisfied with the program was that it helped them more directly than other programs (88.7%). The percentage who said the program had really helped them in their goal of finding a job also increased from 60.2% in 2016 to 83.0% last year.

Young people used 97% of their allowance on living expenses, tuition and study materials at training academies, and interviews and seminars. As much as 41.4% of the money went to living expenses and 36.9% to tuition, and books, which was similar to the figures for last year (42.4% for living expenses, 36.5% for tuition and books). A substantial part of the remaining income was used for finding a job or starting a company, including the cost of interviews (11.5%) and seminars (7.4%), the report found.

“Since the majority of recipients of the youth allowance are unemployed young people who are preparing for creative activities, the civil service exam, or employment at private companies, they’re using most of the allowance in a manner appropriate to its purpose. Our analysis has found that the allowance has also had the effect of reducing the economic burden on the parents and families in question,” explained an official with the city of Seoul.

This report was based on a follow-up survey of the recipients of the 2017 youth allowance that was carried out from Sept. 11 to 21, 2018, by polling organization Surveymob at the request of the Seoul Metropolitan Government and Lee Ji-ho and Seo Bok-gyeong, researchers at the Contemporary Politics Institute at Sogang University. In order to assess the efficacy of the youth allowance, the Seoul Metropolitan Government confirmed the recipients’ activities in society last year.

The youth allowance was available for unemployed individuals between the ages of 19 and 34 who were still looking for a job at least two years after completing their highest level of schooling. People who were not eligible to apply for the program included those who had received such an allowance before, current students, workers with regular income (at least 30 hours of work a week, enrolled in employment insurance for three months or more), recipients of the basic livelihood allowance and people whose families whose income was at 150% or more of the median. The young people selected for the program were given 500,000 won (US$421) a month for a maximum of six months. This year, Seoul selected 13,945 individuals to receive the youth allowance.

Seoul Metropolitan Government is also considering an experimental policy of providing young people with basic income, which was proposed in January by the Seoul Institute and a private sector research institute called LAB2050. Unlike the youth allowance, which had restrictions, including income level and employment status, the basic income for youth would provide the same amount of money to young people without any restrictions. LAB2050 has proposed to create two groups -- 1,600 young people who receive a basic income of 500,000 won a month and 800 people who do not receive it – and track the effects of the basic income over the course of two years.

By Chae Yoon-tae, staff reporter

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