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Low-income households on the increase

The number of the nation's low-income households stood at 89,000 for the first nine months of last year, marking a slight increase of 0.8 percent over the level for same period in 2006, the Ministry of the Interior's department of statistics said on Thursday.

A low-income household is defined as one whose total income divided by the number of individual members is lower than the minimum cost of living and the value of whose assets is lower than the amount declared by the government for that year.

The number of low-income households represented 1.2 percent of all households in the nation, the department's statistics showed.

By region, Taitung County, Penghu County and Hualien County had the highest ratios of low-income families, at 4.6 percent, 3.7 percent and 2.3 percent, respectively.

Meanwhile, the number of individuals in low-income households was 210,000, marking an annual rise of 0.9 percent, the tallies showed.

Ministry officials said that the number of low-income families has gradually increased over the past several years and attributed this trend mainly to the rising minimum cost of living.

They said the central and local governments spent a total of NT$4 billion (US$123 million) on social aid during the first nine months of last year, including NT$3.7 billion on livelihood assistance for low-income families.
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