Indeed, Korea has long subsidised such costs for children from very low'-income households. From 2004 onwards, however, it loosened the income criteria for the subsidy and raised the centre-based ECEC subsidy itself. In 2013, it scrapped the means test for the subsidy altogether, effectively creating a universal programme of public assistance for centre-based care, regardless of income level. In 2007, for example, the government introduced a subsidised “personal care service”, offering parents the option of individual child care in the home.