With the nation's social welfare budget at an all-time high, Premier Sean Chen on July 13 expressed his hopes that the welfare system would create a more harmonious, compassionate society where social injustices are corrected through mechanisms of redistribution of wealth.
Presiding over an Executive Yuan meeting on social welfare efforts, Premier Chen noted that the welfare budget rose to NT$407.2 billion (US$13.7 billion) this year, which also represents the largest administrative outlay in the central government's budget.
The premier was also briefed on a 10-year plan for incorporating physically and mentally disabled home care services into the nation's long-term care system. Premier Chen instructed the Department of Health (DOH) to introduce more diverse indices for assessing the special needs of those suffering from dementia and mental disorders, in order to provide tools more suitable for evaluating their degrees of disability. He also urged the DOH and the Ministry of the Interior (MOI) to gather input from social welfare groups when reviewing how to better incorporate services and subsidies for disabled persons 49 years and younger into the long-term care system.
Since the government launched the 10-year long-term care program in 2008, nearly 100,000 people have received assistance. More than 90 percent have expressed satisfaction with the home care services provided, according to a survey by the MOI.
The MOI also gave a report on child care assistance for families with toddlers aged 2 and younger. Concerning a requirement for grandparents to complete a 126-hour babysitting course in order to qualify for child care subsidies, Premier Chen asked the MOI's Child Welfare Bureau to thoroughly review that policy after a period of implementation.
It is the government's responsibility to offer affordable, quality and accessible toddler care services, the premier remarked, adding that the government is working to provide parents with a wider range of choices and will collaborate with the private sector to form more comprehensive child care policies.
Additionally, the MOI provides subsidies for parents who give up an income to stay home and care for toddlers aged 2 and younger. In the first half of the year, 105,195 families benefited from such assistance. Another program to subsidize nursery care expenses offers NT$3,000-NT$5,000 per month to families that send their toddlers to "communal child care systems" or government-licensed toddler care centers. Currently, local governments across Taiwan have set up 63 communal child care systems consisting of 17,052 providers, with a total capacity to care for 34,104 toddlers.
To further provide affordable and quality child care services, the MOI is combining the resources of local governments and communities to establish joint public-private day care and nursery centers. The MOI plans to set up 20 such centers each year from 2012 to 2014, serving 150,000 children per year by the end of that time.