(image: Korea Bizwire)
SEOUL, Oct. 14 (Korea Bizwire) — Close to one-third of unmarried couples living together or who are de facto married have experienced discrimination when applying for government subsidies, a survey showed Thursday.
The Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs conducted a survey of 291 households consisting of 336 men and women between 19 and 49 years of age who were unmarried but living together, 28.3 percent of whom turned out to have experienced limitations in terms of qualifying for government benefits.
Among the respondents, 21.2 percent said they had experienced limitations on enjoying benefits from everyday services.
Another 13.9 percent had been ‘looked down upon’ by others, while 12.5 percent had been unable to act as guardians because they didn’t qualify as a family member in legal terms.
While they did not register their marriage, 96.7 percent believed that they were in a marriage relationship with their spouse.
The primary reasons for not registering included financial considerations (32.2 percent), in which they wanted to get married after they saved up enough money to purchase a home or hold a wedding ceremony.
At 42.8 percent close to half of the respondents believed in the need for marriage registration, mostly because of the discrimination they suffered from legally and institutionally, as well as in terms of policy and service benefits, childbirth registration and child-rearing.
Lina Jang (linajang@koreabizwire.com)
