100,000 yen benefit for 18 years old or younger Support group “Prompt benefit”

On the 19th, the government decided to provide 100,000 yen to those under the age of 18 as a new economic measure.

The 50,000 yen will be paid in cash by the end of the year by utilizing the child allowance system, and the remaining 50,000 yen will be paid based on coupons for next spring.

On the other hand, organizations that support high school students are welcoming and calling for prompt benefits.

Of these, the Ashinaga Ikueikai, which provides scholarships to children who have lost their parents due to accidents or illnesses or who live with parents with disabilities, pays for the exam every year at this time before the exam season. In addition to scholarships, we lend 400,000 yen as a temporary preparation to third-year high school students who have difficulty preparing entrance fees.

The submitted application form handwritten the reason why the preparation is required, such as "My mother has not been able to get a job for more than a year due to the influence of the new coronavirus" or "High school students themselves I'm trying to save my tuition by working part-time, but I can't get into the shift and I can't get the tuition as I expected. "

According to Ashinaga Ikueikai, the number of third-year high school students who decided to lend preparations this year is 4,96, which is 136 more than last year, which is the highest number since the system was started five years ago. ..

Yasuo Togashi, chief of the Ashinaga Ikueikai Scholarship Division, said, "The prolonged impact on employment and livelihoods of the new coronavirus has already exhausted public loans, making it difficult to prepare tens of thousands of yen. There are many limits to the support that private organizations can provide, and I think that public support is becoming more and more necessary. I want the country to provide benefits with a sense of speed. "

Single-parent families over 19 years old

This 100,000 yen benefit is for those under the age of 18, and not for those over the age of 19, so single-parent families facing the payment of tuition fees at universities and vocational schools have expressed anxiety.

Of these, Tomoko Sato (47), a single mother living in Yokosuka City, Kanagawa Prefecture, lives with the eldest daughter of a 22-year-old college student and the second daughter of a 20-year-old vocational school student.

He works full-time as a nurse and earns about 5 million yen a year, but it is not enough to cover the tuition fees of two people, which costs about 3 million yen a year along with daily living expenses.

In addition to borrowing an education loan of 3.6 million yen at the time of admission, I also borrow scholarships for two people every month, and my eldest daughter has three and my second daughter has two part-time jobs to support my household budget. ..

Currently, Mr. Sato is responsible for repayment of an education loan of about 20,000 yen every month, but scholarship repayment is expected to start after the spring of next year when the two graduate, and I am worried about the future.

Mr. Sato said, "Because I am a single-parent family, I have tried my best not to buy what everyone has, but since the repayment of the loan is withdrawn regardless of income and household circumstances, there is always tension and anxiety. The social support system is mainly paid before junior high school students such as children's allowance, but it actually costs money and it will be difficult after that. It will reach households where children are not yet financially independent, not age. I think there are many households that will be saved if they receive benefits. "

Support group director "I wanted you to think about the details of support"

Regarding this 100,000 yen benefit, Yasushi Aoto, the representative director of the National Council of Child Poverty and Education Support Groups working to support children, said, "If there is a benefit, children can buy what they want, and for families in need. It will be a very thankful measure. "

On the other hand, "If the benefits are used up only for living expenses and the money for education and the funds for the spread of infection in the future are not available, the result may be that anxiety will continue to remain. Also, university tuition fees. Even at national universities, the annual cost is more than 500,000 yen, and there are many families where students themselves work part-time to cover their tuition fees. I wanted them to think about detailed support so that they could reach those families as well. In addition to the measures against poverty in front of us, we need to think about creating a system that can raise children in the future and developing human resources at the same time, and we need to show sufficient measures for both problems. "