Evaluation of the Youth Asset-Building Support Program

Published on November 14, 2025
Published by Economic Industrial Program Evaluation Division, Budget Analysis Department

Young adults in Korea face a range of structural challenges during their socioeconomic transition, including student loan burdens, limited income prospects, and employment insecurity. In this context, this report evaluates the current implementation of the Youth Asset-Building Support Program, analyzes key policy issues, and proposes directions for improvement.
The analysis reveals that youth youth asset-building support is fragmented across ten separate programs administered by six ministries, resulting in overlapping interventions and limited policy coherence. In particular, the Financial Services Commission has repeatedly launched and discontinued similar with short timeframes, creating uncertainly and confusion among young participants.
Within the Ministry of National Defense, non-discretionary expenditures have been structurally expanding in the absence of clearly articulated medium-to long-term roadmap. The ministry’s 2026 budget plan for youth asset-building programs is expected to approach KRW 2 trillion, with additional fiscal pressure arising from newly introduced initiatives. This underscores the importance of aligning budget planning with long-term fiscal resource allocation plans.
Moreover, the evaluation results are not sufficiently reflected in decisions regarding program continuation or institutional improvement, indication weaknesses in the feedback mechanism. Performance management should therefore move beyond short-term, indicator-driven approach toward a participant-centered monitoring framework. In this regard, the Ministry of Health and Welfare has established a longitudinal participant panel tracking changes in income, employment, housing, and psychological well-being, while the Ministry of SMEs and Startups has introduced a clearer classification of program exit factors across individual, organizational, and institutional levels.
 Ultimately, youth asset-building policy should move beyond short-term savings incentives and toward the design of coherent asset accumulation pathways across the life course. Establishing an integrated and sustainable support system is essential to promoting intergenerational equity, reducing program duplication, and strengthening cross-ministries coordination in asset-building initiatives.