Activist group pushes tandem caregiver plan

A social welfare foundation yesterday announced a plan to employ local and foreign caregivers simultaneously to reduce costs associated with taking care of the physically or mentally challenged.

"The Ministry of the Interior currently offers NT$10,000 per month in financial aid to families which hire Taiwanese caregivers. However, it is still far more expensive than hiring a foreign caregiver," Eden Social Welfare Foundation spokesperson Sheng Si-huei (盛錫慧) said.

"In order to create more job opportunities for local workers, as well as make the cost of hiring caregivers more affordable, we are proposing a plan to hire both Taiwanese and foreign workers," Sheng said.

The proposed plan would allow foreign caregivers to be hired for 358 hours per month, while local caregivers would be hired for 176 hours per month. "Local caregivers" would refer to both hospital caregivers and domestic caregivers.

"Hiring a full-time Taiwanese caregiver costs NT$60,000 per month, while hiring a full-time foreign caregiver costs NT$20,000 per month," Sheng said.

"By breaking down monthly costs into hourly costs and integrating the two, the cost to take care of a disabled family member is reduced to NT$30,000 per month," Sheng said.

Sheng added that the foundation supported a Council of Labor Affairs plan to reduce the number of foreign caregivers so that more job opportunities could be made available to local workers.

Sheng said there were 280,000 mentally or physically handicapped people currently in need of around-the-clock, specialized care.

However, only 115,000 foreign caregivers are currently working in Taiwan. As a result, a more comprehensive caregiver system needed to be put in place, Sheng said.

The foundation yesterday also urged the council to come up with a timetable on its plan to reduce the number of foreign caregivers.