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The Ministry of Health and Welfare unveiled a government-level incentive support plan, Tuesday, which is set to take effect later this month, with the primary goal of facilitating access to day care centers for infants under the age of 2.

The incentive plan is designed to alleviate operational challenges for private and family day care centers, ensuring their ability to establish and maintain classes for infants without financial difficulties.

This initiative aims to address the difficulties faced by child care centers in covering labor costs solely through enrollment fees, particularly in light of the nation's declining birthrate, which is leading to a decrease in the number of children enrolled.

For instance, if the class capacity for newborns (under the age of 1) is three, with only two infants being registered, the income from child care fees alone may not be sufficient to meet the minimum wage for one worker. This can lead to the closure of day care centers for infants due to financial problems.

In response, the health and welfare ministry decided to offer additional subsidies, ensuring that labor costs are covered for child care workers even when the number of enrolled infants falls below the quota.

If the current enrollment is less than 50 percent of the capacity, additional institutional child care fees will be provided to compensate for the shortfall.

Under this incentive plan, due to the insufficient quota numbers, classes for infants under the age of 1 may receive 629,000 won ($478) per month, classes for 1-year-olds 342,000 won and classes for 2-year-olds 232,000 won.

The ministry anticipates that this incentive program will stimulate the opening and sustained operation of infant care across 21,000 private and family day care centers, providing parents with the flexibility to enroll their children in centers near their homes for their convenience.

Similar to existing institutional child care fees, the infant care incentives can be accessed only through applications submitted at day care centers. The application and support procedures will be the same as those for applying for institutional child care fees.