All families with children up to five years old will likely get free childcare service starting next year, officials said Sunday, as political parties reacted affirmatively to President-elect Park Geun-hye‘s pledge to expand the government’s welfare spending.

If the program is confirmed, beneficiaries will be allowed to choose between free attendance at childcare centers or kindergartens and a monthly allowance of up to 200,000 won ($187) from next March regardless of their income levels, said the officials.

The ruling Saenuri Party has reached a consensus to implement the program during a closed-door meeting with top officials from the central government and local administrations, according to sources familiar with the meeting on Sunday.

The parliamentary budget committee, during a consultation of high-level ruling and opposition party members, also agreed to set aside 1.4 trillion won more from the government budget for next year to carry out the free childcare program.

The plan requires approval from the budget committee and the main parliamentary session before coming into force.

Currently, the government provides free childcare service to all families with children up to two years old under a program that began early this year along with a separate program to subsidize full educational cost in steps for children aged five who attend kindergartens or other educational facilities.

The free educational program that also provides a standard curriculum called “nuri” for all kindergartens and childcare centers across the country will be expanded to include children aged three and four as scheduled from next March.

However, the program for offering free childcare for infants up to two years was almost scrapped once due to budget constraints as parents competitively enrolled their infants in daytime childcare centers. The welfare ministry declared that it would scrap the program in September from next March and instead provide free childcare to families in the lower 70 percent income bracket, drawing strong criticism from parents with young children and opposition lawmakers.

President-elect Park has also pledged not to scrap the free childcare program for infants and build more public childcare centers across the country. (Yonhap News)