Civic groups yesterday said that the new version of the National Pension Draft Law (國民年金法草案) needed to be reassessed carefully before being sent to the Legislative Yuan for preliminary evaluations. The current draft is poorly designed and does not ensure the rights of many minority groups, they said.
The new draft was approved by the Executive Yuan on Monday, sparking the discontent of many civic groups. The proposed pension law has been discussed for over 13 years, but has never passed preliminary Legislative Yuan evaluations.
Wu Yu-chin (
The draft poses great problems since it aims to incorporate labor insurance with pensions in an effort to take care of more people than they can actually afford to, Wu said.
Wu said that instead the government should consider abandoning the pension law and work on expanding labor insurance alone.
Labor insurance can be expanded to include families of workers and in addition, subsidies for the elderly and the disabled can be given monthly instead of in lump sums.
Wu said that the elderly and disabled were better off receiving monthly subsidies since they may otherwise spend the whole amount in a short period of time.
Chen Chieh-ju (陳節如), vice-chairperson of the Parents' Association for Persons with Intellectual Disabilities, said that if the pension system worked according to the labor insurance structure, many minority groups would not be able to afford the insurance fee.
To protect the economic rights of the disabled, pensions should also be allocated according to a person's ability to work instead of the severity of their disabilities, Chen said.
The new draft stipulates that the severely handicapped are entitled to pensions while those with `medium' handicaps are not.
Chen said that some people with `medium' handicaps have no ability to work, and that the proposed pension scheme would provide no funds for them.
Huang Min-jun, a social worker at the Alliance for the Physically Disabled, said the new draft stipulates that if a person with `medium' handicaps became severely handicapped, they would then be entitled to a pension.
However, the person would have to repay prior subsidies received from the government before receiving their new pension, she said.
Wu said that according to the draft, pensions0 were not awarded to those who have assets over NT$5,000,000 (US$156,000).
The government should improve children’s outdoor spaces and accelerate carbon reduction programs, as the risk of heat-related injury due to high summer temperatures rises each year, Greenpeace told a news conference yesterday. Greenpeace examined summer temperatures in Taipei, New Taipei City, Taoyuan, Hsinchu City, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung to determine the effects of high temperatures and climate change on children’s outdoor activities, citing data garnered by China Medical University, which defines a wet-bulb globe temperature (WBGT) of 29°C or higher as posing the risk of heat-related injury. According to the Central Weather Administration, WBGT, commonly referred to as the heat index, estimates
The Taipei Department of Health’s latest inspection of fresh fruit and vegetables sold in local markets revealed a 25 percent failure rate, with most contraventions involving excessive pesticide residues, while two durians were also found to contain heavy metal cadmium at levels exceeding safety limits. Health Food and Drug Division Director Lin Kuan-chen (林冠蓁) yesterday said the agency routinely conducts inspections of fresh produce sold at traditional markets, supermarkets, hypermarkets, retail outlets and restaurants, testing for pesticide residues and other harmful substances. In its most recent inspection, conducted in May, the department randomly collected 52 samples from various locations, with testing showing
Taipei and other northern cities are to host air-raid drills from 1:30pm to 2pm tomorrow as part of urban resilience drills held alongside the Han Kuang exercises, Taiwan’s largest annual military exercises. Taipei, New Taipei City, Keelung, Taoyuan, Yilan County, Hsinchu City and Hsinchu County are to hold the annual Wanan air defense exercise tomorrow, following similar drills held in central and southern Taiwan yesterday and today respectively. The Taipei Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) and Maokong Gondola are to run as usual, although stations and passenger parking lots would have an “entry only, no exit” policy once air raid sirens sound, Taipei
Taipei placed 14th in the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) Best Student Cities 2026 list, its highest ever, according to results released yesterday. With an overall score of 89.1, the city climbed 12 places from the previous year, surpassing its previous best ranking of 17th in 2019. Taipei is “one of Asia’s leading higher-education hubs,” with strong employer activity scores and students “enjoying their experience of the city and often keen to stay after graduation,” a QS staff writer said. In addition to Taipei, Hsinchu (71st), Tainan (92nd), Taichung (113th) and Taoyuan (130th) also made QS’ list of the top 150 student cities. Hsinchu showed the
RSS