A number of groups yesterday pledged support to a new policy announced by the Executive Yuan to subsidize childcare by certified nannies for children under the age of two.
"We think that this will be a step forward, both for working families and for the healthy development of certified nanny programs in this country," Alliance for Integrated Childcare Policy convener Liu Yu-hsiu (
Also in agreement with the program is Roscher Lin (
"Unlike the unworkable maternity leave policy, this benefit will help businesses," Lin said.
The Executive Yuan announced on Wednesday that a monthly benefit of NT$3,000 per infant will be given to families who qualify for the scheme to go toward the cost of leaving the child with a certified nanny while both parents work. In addition, families earning more than NT$1.5 million a year are excluded from the scheme.
Single parents are also eligible for the benefit as long as they are working. Even those who work from home are eligible as long as they pay taxes on their work-derived income. Supporters of the scheme say that working families and the nation's flagging birth rate will benefit. Last year, according to Ministry of the Interior figures, women in this country give birth to 1.12 children on average.
However, the benefit will only cover roughly one-fifth of the NT$15,000 that is the estimated minimum monthly cost of leaving an infant in a certified nanny's care. Families who chose institutional daycare centers or to ask relatives to look after the infant will not be eligible for the benefit, prompting some parents to ask if the benefit will really help them.
"We decided to support certified nannies over daycare centers because they are better able to focus on the infants," said Chang Sy-ning (張思寧), a childcare and development professor at Hung-kuang University, who had been consulted by the Executive Yuan while formulating the policy.
However, the policy does not necessarily cheer up all parents.
Mr Yang (
"This is an unfair rule that excludes too many families," he told the Taipei Times while not wanting to be fully identified. "I don't believe nannies can provide better care for the kids than their own grandparents."
Chang disagreed.
"The traditional attitudes toward young kids is, `see that they don't get into trouble.' But a properly trained care provider aids the child's verbal and physical development through structured play and exercises," she said.
Costa Rica sent a group of intelligence officials to Taiwan for a short-term training program, the first time the Central American country has done so since the countries ended official diplomatic relations in 2007, a Costa Rican media outlet reported last week. Five officials from the Costa Rican Directorate of Intelligence and Security last month spent 23 days in Taipei undergoing a series of training sessions focused on national security, La Nacion reported on Friday, quoting unnamed sources. The Costa Rican government has not confirmed the report. The Chinese embassy in Costa Rica protested the news, saying in a statement issued the same
Taiwan’s Liu Ming-i, right, who also goes by the name Ray Liu, poses with a Chinese Taipei flag after winning the gold medal in the men’s physique 170cm competition at the International Fitness and Bodybuilding Federation Asian Championship in Ajman, United Arab Emirates, yesterday.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
RSS