It has been found that party officials of the Basic Income Party, including the spouse of Minister of Gender Equality and Family candidate Yong Hye-in, applied for and received government subsidies designed to support youth employment and help small business owners.

According to data obtained from the Ministry of Employment and Labor by the office of People Power Party Representative Kim So-hee, the Basic Income Party received approximately 81 million won in government subsidies, including the Job Stabilization Funds, Special Employment Promotion Subsidies, and Youth Job Leap Subsidies, between 2020 and 2024.

The Job Stabilization Fund is a subsidy paid to employers at workplaces with fewer than 30 employees to alleviate the management burden on small business owners and micro-enterprises caused by minimum wage increases.

The office of Representative Kim So-hee stated that, as a result of analyzing the data received from the Ministry of Employment and Labor, it was confirmed that the Basic Income Party received about 15.18 million won in Job Stabilization Funds from 2020 to 2022.

The applicants for payment included Park Ki-hong, a Supreme Council member of the Basic Income Party and the spouse of candidate Yong, acting party leader Moon Mi-jung, spokesperson and Supreme Council member No Seo-young, Seoul Metropolitan City standing committee chairperson Shin Min-ju, and deputy spokesperson Kim Jin-seo.

The Special Employment Promotion Subsidy is a scheme where the government supports employers with up to 1 million won per month if they maintain employment for a certain period during the spread of COVID-19 from 2020 to 2021.

It was found that the Basic Income Party utilized this system to receive a total of 25.2 million won, including a total of 9.6 million won received under the name of acting party leader Moon Mi-jung.

The Youth Job Leap Subsidy is a program that supports employers with up to 12 million won per person for one year if they hire young people facing employment difficulties as regular workers and maintain their employment for six months or more.

It was confirmed that the Basic Income Party placed four people on the recipient list and received about 40.8 million won from 2022 to 2024.

Representative Kim So-hee, a member of the National Assembly's Gender Equality and Family Committee, criticized, "Circumstances have been confirmed where core figures of the Basic Income Party repeatedly received job support funds intended for vulnerable groups," adding, "This is a clear distortion of the system and a serious moral hazard that covered party staff labor costs with the people's tax money."

In response to an SBS inquiry asking for the reason behind receiving government subsidies, the Basic Income Party stated, "As a party of a smaller scale compared to the Democratic Party of Korea and the People Power Party, we became eligible for support," and added, "Since the subsidies are structured to be paid to the employer, it is absurd to claim that wage benefits went to some major party officials."

(Photo: Yonhap News)