The government will pay childcare subsidies directly to parents who send their children to daycare or nursery school.

The Ministry for Health, Welfare and Family Affairs said it has decided to pay subsidies to parents instead of to childcare facilities starting next year. The move is part of efforts to make administration more efficient and to help parents feel the effects of state child welfare policies.

Currently, of the two-point-eight million infants and children too young to go to school, more than one million go to childcare facilities. The nation’s annual budget for childcare subsidies is close to one-point-four trillion won, about one-point-three billion U.S. dollars.

Also, the ministry will seek to expand the childcare subsidy program to include, as early as 2012, all infants and children too young to go to school. Currently, only low-income families are eligible for the subsidies.

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