ed Stop youth allowance

Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon’s clash with the central government is intensifying over his program to provide cash to jobseekers in their 20s.

Park defied the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s order to stop the program and pushed ahead with the payment of cash subsidies, vowing to fight back in court against the ministry’s order.

The conflict between the mayor and the central government is causing a lot of confusion over those who have already received the cash subsidies. Seoul selected 2,831 people between ages 19 and 29 and provided 500,000 won per person.

Under the plan, Seoul city administration will provide 500,000 won to selected applicants for six months, with an aim to offer financial assistance and encouragement to jobseekers struggling with one of the worst youth unemployment crisis Korea has faced. The unemployment rate among people aged between 15 and 29 hit a record monthly high of 10.9 percent in April and it has stayed above 10 percent since.

The central and local governments should be working together to respond to such a serious unemployment crisis. This is not the time for the mayor of Korea’s capital and the central government to be fighting over a youth welfare issue.

Mayor Park claimed that it is a breach of local autonomy for the central government to meddle in the affairs of the city administration. It is true that the central government has a tendency to be overbearing toward local administrations. But in this case, the government’s reaction is not the central issue. The so-called youth allowance program has several serious flaws that overshadow its good intentions.

Park, who is a presidential hopeful, should suspend the populist program before it causes further confusion and ends up wasting the taxpayers’ money. The temporary cash program can not be a fundamental solution to alleviating youth unemployment and will cause moral hazards.He should remember that in a recent survey 64.2 percent of people in their 20s disapproved of the plan.