Review living costs while attending vocational training
Retraining for employment requires a budget for transport, meals and family living costs alongside tuition.
Tuition support through the National Tomorrow Learning Card does not automatically establish eligibility for a training allowance.
The participant category, total course hours, unit-period attendance and other benefits must all be checked.
This calculator organizes daily attendance for ordinary classroom or live remote-interactive courses and compares an allowance candidate with living-cost gaps before and after payment.
These are Korea-based 2026 rules, verified on 2026-10-07, rather than a benefit system for another country.
A middle-aged job seeker or supporting family member can use the roster to identify dates requiring provider review.
A candidate is not payment approval or a deposit date: prepare for the cash gap before payment even when a positive candidate appears.
Decisions and main functions
Reconcile attendance
Separate actual attendance, absence, provider-approved credited attendance and unconfirmed records.
Missing rows are counted separately instead of being finalized as absences.
Dates attended for less than half the scheduled time are also listed for review.
Plan available cash
Compare the unit-period candidate, the difference caused by provider meals and caps, and cash already available.
The gap before payment shows what must be funded immediately; the gap after the candidate is a conditional budget for later.
Save the review and reconcile dates with the provider roster, checking credited reasons and converted absences first.
Use the separate training-card calculator for tuition and account credit.
A repayable training living-cost loan should not be added as if it were another nonrepayable allowance.
Understand course and participant inputs
- Program: Confirm an ordinary classroom/live course with Work24 or the provider.
National strategic-industry training, specialized high-school courses and K-Digital programs may use different tables despite using the same card.
- Total course hours: Enter the entire course, not this month or remaining hours.
Ordinary categories require at least 140 total hours; disability employment-package participants have a separate exception under Article 49(1)(3).
- Employment and category: Ordinary unemployed participants, insured workers scheduled for below 60 hours per month or below 15 hours per week, and EITC/child-credit recipients satisfying separate criteria have different eligibility checks.
A job title or category selection does not establish entitlement.
Confirm employment contracts, business status and insurance throughout the period.
- Daily scheduled minutes: These are planned hours, not hours actually attended.
For a six-hour scheduled day attended for three hours, the rate still uses the six-hour schedule.
Varying daily schedules require separate review because this model assumes a uniform scheduled day.
Self-employed insured participants have different daily rates, caps and insurance-arrears conditions, so the ordinary table is withheld for them.
Article 49(4) also restricts remote courses, mandatory-duty training, foreign-language courses and the remote portion of blended training.
A separate-review result does not decide whether you can enroll or receive support through another program.
Ordinary-course daily rates and monthly caps
Korean 2026 ordinary classroom/live course allowance by scheduled daily hours, in KRW| Scheduled hours per day | Daily candidate rate | Monthly cap |
|---|
| Below 5 hours | KRW 2,500 | KRW 50,000 |
| 5 hours or more | KRW 5,800 | KRW 116,000 |
Five hours equals 300 minutes, so 299 and 300 scheduled minutes use different rates.
The cap is not a fixed monthly award: multiply confirmed payable days by the daily rate, then apply the cap.
Sixteen payable days at the longer-day rate give KRW 92,800, while twenty give KRW 116,000.
Do not mix the special-program KRW 4,300/10,000 daily rates or 86,000/200,000 caps into this ordinary table.
Unit periods and daily attendance categories
Under Article 2, a unit period runs by month from course commencement, which need not coincide with a calendar month.
Enter provider-confirmed dates and scheduled days.
Remove cancelled classes and holidays and add actual weekend classes where needed.
The weekday button replaces existing rows with a draft; it does not create or confirm an official timetable.
Actual attendance and absence
Article 34 treats attendance below 50% of the scheduled day as absence.
For a 360-minute day, 179 minutes fails this check and exactly 180 minutes passes it.
Late-arrival, early-departure and outing conversions still require separate reconciliation.
School-excused absences are not attendance for cost-payment purposes and belong in the absent category.
Approved credits and unknown records
An Annex 3 reason does not become approved simply because it is entered here.
Keep it unconfirmed until the provider approves it, then record the reason and separately confirm whether the day is payable.
Missing dates or unfinished attendance corrections hold the amount pending.
Selections here do not change the official Work24 roster.
Three late arrivals, early departures or outings count as one converted absence.
Enter the provider-confirmed converted absence days; do not repeat a deduction already recorded as an absent row.
If accumulated events or their allocation between periods are unclear, ask for the official deduction rather than inventing your own grouping.
The 80% threshold and allowance formulas
Attendance threshold
Recognized days = actual days attended for at least half the schedule − converted absences + approved credited days
Attendance = recognized days / scheduled days × 100
Required recognized days = ceil(scheduled days × 0.8)
A 20-day period requires 16 recognized days; a 21-day period requires 17.
Attendance is rounded to one decimal place under Article 36.
Payable days and money
Payable candidate days = qualifying actual days − converted absences + approved days confirmed payable
Candidate without meals = min(payable days × ordinary daily rate, monthly cap)
With provider meals throughout a qualifying long-day period: candidate = min(payable days × (KRW 5,800 − 3,300), KRW 50,000)
The displayed meal-and-cap difference compares the two capped budgets.
Do not subtract all meal days again from an allowance that has already reached its ordinary cap.
Unconfirmed and missing days are excluded from the lower attendance bound and included in the upper bound.
Even an upper bound reaching 80% does not finalize the amount.
Prior-period scheduled and recognized days provide a cumulative attendance reference once the current roster is complete and confirmed.
That reference does not decide course completion or removal.
Courses below 10 days or 40 hours and mid-course entry use other hour-based formulas or denominators under Article 36 and are excluded here.
Step-by-step use
- Gather the official course information: Check the program, commencement date, total hours and days, daily schedule, participant category, contracts and insurance.
- Reconcile the unit period: Enter provider dates and scheduled days, then correct any weekday draft to match the actual timetable.
- Classify attendance: Enter actual minutes, absence, approved credited reasons and payable status without duplicating converted absences.
Save unresolved dates for provider review.
- Check benefits and facilities: Review overlapping benefits and provider meals or dormitory use.
Do not apply one period-wide status to a condition that changed halfway through.
- Prepare cash and the next action: Enter living costs and available cash and review the gap before payment first.
For the final period, confirm evaluation and take the saved roster review to the provider.
Worked 20-day example and cash-gap interpretation
16 recognized days give 80.0%
Assume an ordinary 240-hour course with six scheduled hours per day, twenty days in this period, sixteen actually attended days and four absences.
With no converted absences or overlapping exclusions and all conditions confirmed, attendance is 80.0% and payable days are sixteen.
The KRW 5,800 daily rate produces a KRW 92,800 candidate.
If a prior twenty-day period had eighteen recognized days, cumulative reference attendance is 85.0%.
Living costs of KRW 500,000
With KRW 350,000 already available, the gap before payment is KRW 150,000.
Even after assuming receipt of KRW 92,800, the gap is KRW 57,200.
The conditional after-payment gap does not mean that preparing only 57,200 is enough while the deposit date is unknown.
One unconfirmed day
Fifteen confirmed attended days, one unconfirmed day and four absences give a 75.0%–80.0% range.
Crediting the unknown day would reach the threshold, but the amount remains pending.
If that day is confirmed absent, attendance is 75.0% and the candidate under these confirmed conditions is zero.
For the same sixteen payable days with provider meals throughout the period, the adjusted daily amount is KRW 2,500, producing KRW 40,000.
The difference from KRW 92,800 without meals is KRW 52,800; the living-cost gap after the candidate is KRW 110,000.
For twenty-one payable days, the meal-adjusted candidate reaches its KRW 50,000 cap.
This differs from deducting twenty-one meal amounts from an ordinary allowance already capped at KRW 116,000.
These are fictional calculations, not actual attendance or approval records.
Overlapping benefits, dormitories and final evaluation
- Article 50 restricts periods overlapping with unemployment benefits, industrial-accident leave benefits, government job-search support allowances and allowances from publicly funded employment programs.
Confirm the actual payment category rather than treating all National Employment Support participation alike.
- Provider dormitory use is a nonpayment condition.
Provider meals differ from meals bought independently: paying for your own lunch does not establish a provider-meal deduction.
- For the final unit period, confirm course evaluation.
Check the Work24 procedure within 30 days after completion or withdrawal; this calculator keeps the final candidate pending while evaluation is incomplete or unknown.
Employment starting, another benefit ending, or meals/dormitory use for only some days does not fit the uniform-period assumptions.
Select the exception flag and ask for day-specific settlement instead of treating the whole period as payable or excluded.
Provider closure and cancellation exceptions also require official review.
Practical tips and limits
Check the roster revision date before comparing terminal records and approved reasons.
For missing attendance caused by a lost card or broken terminal, the next step is the provider attendance-entry request procedure under Article 34.
Editing a number here does not complete an official correction.
Record only the needed approved reason rather than names or detailed health information when preparing a family review.
- Keep this unit period separate from cumulative course attendance.
The 80% allowance threshold is not a course-completion or removal decision.
- Exclude this allowance candidate from cash already available.
Otherwise the same money is counted twice and the shortage is understated.
- Duplicate or out-of-period dates, too many rows, attended minutes exceeding scheduled minutes, excessive converted absences and inconsistent cumulative days are rejected.
Pending review is different from a confirmed zero candidate.
- Special training payments, regional additions, living-cost loans, tax, actual deposit dates and fraud determinations are excluded.
Rules for 2027 or later and courses commencing before 2026 require a new review.
Frequently asked questions
Does 80% attendance guarantee payment?
No.
Confirm total hours, participant category, employment and insurance, overlapping benefits, facilities and final evaluation.
The result is a candidate from confirmed inputs.
Are the 140 hours measured in this unit period?
They are total course hours.
Ordinary categories require at least 140; the disability employment package has a separate exception.
This tool excludes hour-based attendance methods for courses shorter than 10 days or 40 hours.
Is every credited-attendance day also payable?
Confirm attendance credit and payable status separately.
Until provider approval, keep the row unknown.
A credited row with unknown payable status holds the amount pending.
What if I attend three of six scheduled hours?
Exactly 50% passes the attended-time check; less than three hours counts absent.
Converted late-arrival, early-departure and outing absences still need reconciliation.
The rate uses six scheduled hours.
Should three late arrivals and an absence both be entered?
Do not count the same converted deduction twice.
If already represented by an absent row, do not deduct it again in the converted-absence field.
Use the provider-confirmed value.
Do meals get subtracted from the KRW 116,000 cap?
Subtract KRW 3,300 from the KRW 5,800 daily rate, multiply by payable days and apply the KRW 50,000 meal cap.
Deducting meals again from an already capped allowance changes the calculation order.
Why is the final-period amount pending?
Evaluation may be incomplete or unknown.
Check the evaluation within 30 days after completion or withdrawal, as well as missing roster dates and overlapping-benefit conditions.
Does cumulative attendance determine completion?
It is a reference combining the prior and current periods you entered.
Completion and removal require the whole schedule, hour-based exceptions and other conditions; confirm them with the provider.
Official sources and rule dates
The National Law Information OPEN API and official Work24 guidance were checked on 2026-10-07.
The National Tomorrow Learning Card Operating Rules, Ministry of Employment and Labor Notice 2026-39, are effective 2026-05-11; the current serial is 2100000279150.
Verification covered Articles 34, 36, 49 and 50 and Annex 3, attendance formula images 164650841/164650843, payment table 164650901 and reduction table 164650933.
The 2026-01-01 amendment application provision for Article 49 limits this implementation to courses commencing in 2026.
The underlying account provisions are Article 18 of the National Lifelong Vocational Skills Development Act, MST 247245, effective 2023-07-04, and Article 16 of its Enforcement Decree, MST 288451, effective 2026-08-04.
For another rule year, recheck ordinary/special program boundaries, attendance credits, meals, dormitories, overlapping periods and evaluation conditions.
Save the review and reconcile it with your provider
Load the fictional example to understand sixteen recognized days and the living-cost gap, then replace it with your records.
Resolve pending dates and conditions individually and save the review to confirm attendance, payable days and converted absences with the provider.
Continue checking tuition and account credit with the training-card copay and balance calculator.
Confirm actual eligibility and payment timing with Work24 or the responsible employment center.