News Japan bans welfare recipients from going to university

thomas · 11 Dec 2022

Hard to fathom: Japanese welfare recipients are prohibited from studying. This often leads to students dropping out when they face financial difficulties. The welfare ministry refuses to change the 1963 rule, which bans welfare recipients from attending higher education, despite calls from critics who argue doing so would give poor people better opportunities in life and lift more people out of poverty.

The Japan Federation of Bar Associations is among those urging the government to scrap the rule. It said that 80 per cent of children from average households now attend college or university, but only 40 per cent from families on public assistance go on to higher education. The calls to scrap the prohibition come after a committee of the Social Security Council reviewed the public assistance program and compiled a draft document that left the rule unchanged. The draft said the country needs to maintain a balance between those receiving public assistance and other households where students work part-time to pay their way through junior college or a university. Welfare ministry officials said some high school graduates immediately enter the workforce instead of pursuing higher education.

Japan maintains ban on welfare recipients going to university | The Asahi Shimbun: Breaking News, Japan News and Analysis

johnnyG · 11 Dec 2022

I got food stamps for a while when I was a poor uni student (a little older so independent of my parents).

Grandpa Frank · 11 Dec 2022

I have been super lucky with jobs in my lifetime. I was only on unemployment once in my life for 2 weeks. I feel bad for people here in the US with skyrocketing inflation affecting everything , a lot of people are suffering.

musicisgood · 11 Dec 2022

That's a hard token to swallow. If they work part time, and the money they earn goes for the university tuition, then I think its a fair trade off, as long as it is a govt. learning institution. Private universities, sorry but I have to say no on that one.

News Japan bans welfare recipients from going to university

thomas

Unswerving cyclist

johnnyG

Sempai

Grandpa Frank

Sempai

musicisgood

Sempai

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