Insurance revision woos aging farmers

More than 60,000 farmers of advancing years will benefit from a revision to farmers' insurance regulations reactivating eligibility, legislators said yesterday.

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators and officials from the Council of Agriculture (COA), the Bureau of Labor Insurance and the Ministry of the Interior confirmed at a press conference that the revised regulations would be available as early as next week.

It was estimated that more than 60,000 farmers could benefit from the revision.

Farmers' insurance regulations have become increasingly strict, resulting in 70,000 farmers losing their eligibility.

Current regulations exclude farmers and their relatives from insurance eligibility if household registration changes, crops cannot be grown, employment expires, land is subdivided, an insured spouse dies and other reasons.

According to the revised regulations, legislators said, the eligibility of farmers aged above 65 who are currently working and who have paid insurance premiums for more than eight years would be reactivated.

"Although the revised policy will cost an additional NT$5 billion each year, the decreasing deficit makes it possible to balance revenue and expenditure," DPP Legislator Lin Yu-sheng (林育生) said.

Lin said the news was like a big "red envelope" from the government to aged farmers to help them usher in the new year.

Lin said the deficit had fallen to about NT$2 billion this year from NT$7.3 billion in 2001.

Taiwan Solidarity Union's Chien Lin Whei-jun (錢林慧君)said that the revision would be retroactive and take care of those in need. Expenses relating to injuries, funerals and births that occurred in the past two years would be covered.

The policy is regarded as a DPP government sweetener in advance of the March presidential election.