The interpretation of 'consultation' is divided.

The Ministry of Government Legislation, a central administrative agency, interpreted 'consultation' in Article 26(2) of the Framework Act on Social Security as meaning 'agreement or consent.' On this basis the government and Gyeonggi Province argue that the city violated the act because it failed to 'agree' with the Ministry of Health and Welfare. Yet opinions in the legal community remain divided over the word. Gyeonggi Province plans to sue in the Supreme Court and seek a suspension of budget execution, arguing the programs are illegal because they lacked the ministry's 'consent.' Seongnam City takes the view that the ministry's 'consultation' itself is not legally binding, noting that nowhere in the Ministry of Government Legislation's interpretation does it say that a program is 'illegal' without the ministry's agreement or approval. The ministry's legal interpretations are only a reference for the courts, not an authoritative interpretation, so they cannot by themselves decide legality.

The youth dividend is based on the idea of basic income and is paid universally to everyone in the eligible group regardless of income or contribution. Korea has so far had no welfare policy based on basic income. Under Article 26(2) of the Framework Act on Social Security, this policy must go through consultation with the Ministry of Health and Welfare.

(1) The state and local governments are responsible for maintaining and promoting a decent life for all citizens.

(1) The state and local governments must establish systems that guarantee income so that all citizens can live a decent life despite various social risks.

(2) The state and local governments must ensure that public and private income security systems are effectively linked.

The free school uniform program can be said to relate to guaranteeing young people's educational opportunities.

(Article 3(4)) 'Social services' means systems that guarantee a decent life for all citizens who need help from the state, local governments and the private sector in welfare, health care, education, employment, housing, culture, the environment and other fields, and that support a better quality of life through counseling, rehabilitation, care, information, use of facilities, capacity building and support for social participation.

Article 5 (Responsibilities of the state and local governments) (1) The state and local governments are responsible for maintaining and promoting a decent life for all citizens.

To add, here is how the dispute ended. In February 2018 the government's Social Security Committee accepted the free school uniform program, and a late-2017 amendment to the Mother and Child Health Act let local government heads set up and run public postpartum care centers from June 2018. In May 2018 Seongnam withdrew its three competence dispute petitions over the ministry's guidelines on overlapping local social security programs, the Local Shared Tax Act enforcement decree and Article 26 of the Framework Act on Social Security (2015Hun-Ra4, 6 and 8). In similar petitions filed by other local governments, the Constitutional Court dismissed the claims because no concrete infringement, such as an actual grant cut, had yet occurred. The paper's figures and budgets are as of 2016.