Saturday, May 11th, 2013
SEOUL, KOREA - As many as seven out of ten applicants to "People's Happiness Fund," the government-initiated program to forgive debts of individual borrowers and help them get back on their feet, turned out to be those low-income earners with debts of less than 20 million won. According to the Financial Services Commission on May 9, of the 94,036 applications received between April 22 and 30, 73.4 percent were those made by individuals whose debt was below 20 million won.
At the time of the Happiness Fund's introduction, many observers fretted the program would be flooded with applications by high-income debtors. Contrary to the expectation, however, many more low-income families suffering from high interest payments will be able to benefit from the program.
By gender, male applicants accounted for 66.6 percent in the total. By age, those in their 40s took the largest share with 35.8 percent, followed by 50s (29.5%) and 30s (21.7%). By income level, those earning between 10 and 20 million won accounted for almost a half with 47.5 percent.