Seven out of 10 young people who applied for personal bankruptcy in South Korea are in debt because they have no money to live on.

It was revealed that seven out of ten young people who applied for personal bankruptcy in South Korea last year borrowed money for the first time to secure living expenses, and 10 young people experienced a "vicious cycle" of debt.
The Seoul Financial Welfare Counseling Center, located within the Seoul Metropolitan Welfare Foundation, reported that among those under the age of 29 who applied for personal bankruptcy last year, 8 out of 10 were “Youth Financial Guides.”
The survey was conducted on 1,374 people who took the program, and the results were announced on the 28th. The "Youth Financial Guide" is a program that asks people to calculate their income and expenses in order to prevent them from dropping out of the personal rehabilitation process.
The program provides information on how to manage personal debt, guidance on the rehabilitation procedure, and how to complete repayment after approval. According to the results of this survey, the amount of debt of young people who applied for personal rehabilitation is between 40 million and 60 million yen.
The largest group was those with a salary of less than 4.4 million won (approximately 4.4 million to 6.6 million yen), accounting for 31%. This was followed by "60 million to 80 million won" (22%), "less than 40 million won" (19%), and "over 100 million won" (20%).
The most common reason for first getting into debt (multiple answers allowed) was "to secure living expenses" (70%).
This was followed by "housing costs" (29%), "overspending" (27%), "supporting family" (17%), and "being a victim of fraud" (15%).
The foundation said, "Compared to the previous year, the number of respondents who said they had incurred debt due to living expenses or family support increased.
"Increased." 84% of respondents also said they had experienced "a tide of debt." Reasons for increasing debt while unable to repay include "repaying other debts" (65%),
The reasons cited were "increased debt due to high interest rates" (38%) and "loss of income due to unemployment or job change" (31%). Furthermore, 93% of young people who applied for personal rehabilitation said that they had experienced "emotional difficulties" in the past year.
In particular, three in ten respondents (34%) said they had felt suicidal thoughts. In addition, 63% of respondents said they had "no desire to seek help when faced with a difficult situation."
"There is no one (or place) to turn to for help," they said, revealing that they are experiencing social isolation due to debt. The city of Seoul is working to support young people who are struggling with financial and economic problems to get back on their feet and become independent.
In order to build a foundation for this, we operate the Youth Accompanying Center within the Seoul Financial Welfare Counseling Center.