The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare is set to provide up to 300,000 yen each to households on welfare when their children advance to college and other institutions, as part of efforts to support impoverished youth's access to higher education, it has been learned.

There are cases where children of needy households give up going to college as their parents are unable to pay funds necessary upon matriculation, and the new measure is aimed at breaking the cycle of poverty from parents to children. The ministry will also abolish a reduction in housing benefits for households on welfare if their children continue to live with their parents after enrollment in college and other institutions.

The ministry is planning to include the scheme in its draft budget for fiscal 2018 and submit a set of bills to revise the Public Assistance Act and other relevant laws to the regular session of the Diet next year. A subcommittee of the ministry's Social Security Council drew up a report on Dec. 11 for reviewing the welfare benefit system, based on which the ministry will move ahead with revising the current scheme.

Specifically, the ministry will provide 100,000 yen each to students who will continue to live with their parents and 300,000 yen each to those who will move out to live by themselves, as funds for preparing for enrollment.

Currently, high school students from households receiving public assistance are not allowed to work part-time to save money in preparation for college enrollment, while scholarships are only granted after matriculation. The ministry's new benefit system is aimed at helping students with paying for study materials and living expenses for the near term. School tuitions and living expenses thereafter are supposed to be covered by scholarships, according to the plan.

"The creation of benefits for preparing for college enrollment is good news for children from households on welfare," said Kei Uchida, a student at Utsunomiya University, who is from a household on welfare and recalled struggling to eat until scholarships were granted after matriculation in April this year.

Under the current system, households on welfare are hit by a reduction in housing and living allowances -- which are based on the number of people in each household -- once their children go to college and other institutions as the latter is treated as "separate households." This system is blamed for being one of the factors preventing youths from such households from going to universities and other higher educational institutions. "Unless the household division system is abolished, there will be no end to youths abandoning studying at higher educational institutions," said one expert.

However, the ministry will keep the system intact on the grounds of the need to strike a balance between those entering college and the workforce, while introducing the new system of sparing housing benefit cuts for those living with their parents. Concerns remain as each student's choice of school is not necessarily commutable from their parents' home.

After Uchida moved out to study at Utsunomiya University, the housing benefits for his ailing mother was slashed as their households were separated. Unable to pay rent, his mother was forced to move out, and currently lives alone in Saitama.

In the past, the household separation system had been in place even for those advancing to high school, until it was abolished in 1970 after the rate of going on to study at high school topped 80 percent. As of fiscal 2016, the rate of advancing to college and vocational schools was over 70 percent.

Ichiro Matsumoto, professor at Hokkaido University who is specialized in educational welfare, commented, "Keeping the household separation system intact is inconsistent with the government's plan to support children from households on welfare in advancing to college. ... That system needs to be abolished from the standpoint of eliminating inequality in life prospects."

Meanwhile, amid an increase in the number of elderly households on welfare, the ministry will bolster support for low-income elderly who are not on welfare for job assistance and household budget consultations.

As for free or low-priced lodgings for welfare recipients and other needy people, which have become a hotbed for businesses exploiting those in need, the ministry will beef up regulations including a requirement for operators to notify local authorities before launching such facilities.