The ruling party and the government on Thursday agreed on a new youth assistance program, including a monthly rent subsidy for young people in lower income brackets, party officials said.

The decision was reached during a consultative meeting between the Democratic Party and the government amid the country's soaring housing costs and the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic.

Under the special youth assistance program, the government will pay a monthly rent subsidy of 200,000 won ($171.4) for up to a year to each young person whose income is 60 percent or less of the country's median income, starting next year.

"(The program) aims to give temporary assistance to the young generations (in the lower income brackets) to ride out the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic," Lee Dong-hak, a member of the DP's supreme council, said in a briefing after the ruling party-government consultation. "Two hundred thousand won will be paid every month for the duration of up to 12 months."

Lee added that an estimated 160,000 young people whose monthly income is about 1.2 million won or less are expected to benefit from the program.

In addition to the monthly 200,000 won cash payment, government-assisted loans will also be available as part of the relief program, he noted.

In line with the youth assistance program, the DP and the government also agreed to introduce a special bank account program dedicated to helping young people build assets, as well as a separate subsidy for small and midsize firms to encourage them to hire more young people.

"The latest measures are focused on resolving (the widening) gaps within younger generations ... and recovering the employment rate for the youth to the pre-COVID-19 level," Education Minister Yoo Eun-hae said during the meeting. (Yonhap)