People Power Party lawmaker Cho Eun-hee [provided by the lawmaker's office]
People Power Party lawmaker Cho Eun-hee [provided by the lawmaker's office]

People Power Party lawmaker Cho Eun-hee said Tuesday she had introduced a package of bills that would require the central government and local authorities to analyze the fiscal impact of their budgets on young people and incorporate the findings into budget planning.

The package comprises five amendment bills covering the Framework Act on Youth, the National Finance Act, the National Accounting Act, the Local Finance Act and the Local Accounting Act, Cho said. Each bill aims to establish an institutional framework for analyzing and evaluating budgets from a youth perspective, from the drafting stage through final settlement.

Youth policy spending is currently spread across multiple ministries, making it difficult for young people to get a clear picture of what benefits are available to them. Critics have long cited a lack of institutional mechanisms for setting fiscal priorities aimed at expanding youth benefits — particularly in areas such as student loans and residential support.

The centerpiece of the package, an amendment to the Framework Act on Youth, would establish the legal basis for a youth-inclusive budgeting regime. It would require the government to analyze how national and local budgets affect young people and reflect those findings in fiscal management.

Under the proposed amendments to the National Finance Act and the National Accounting Act, the government would be required to submit to the National Assembly a "youth-inclusive budget statement" at the drafting stage and a "youth-inclusive settlement statement" at the closing stage. The Local Finance Act and Local Accounting Act amendments would extend the same submission requirements to local governments and require them to publicly disclose the documents so young people can verify the information directly.

"The reality is that youth budget allocations are scattered across ministries and individual projects, making it hard for young people to know where to turn, what support is available and how much they can receive," Cho said. "The youth-inclusive budgeting regime will serve as the basis for data-driven administration — checking how public funds are spent through the eyes of young people, preventing opaque budgeting and concentrating resources where young people actually feel the impact."


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