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Experts slam Ma over welfare

Academics yesterday called for comprehensive tax reforms to promote social welfare, saying President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) policies could do irreparable damage to the public welfare system.

“I had very high expectations of Ma’s welfare policies before the election, but now I’m greatly disappointed,” Lin Wan-yi (林萬億), a social work professor at National Taiwan University, told a forum on the future of the social welfare movement.

“Ma said that sustainability and justice would be the main themes of his welfare policy — but it’s apparently not the case now,” Lin said.

Some experts have estimated that the new labor insurance pension system could go bankrupt within 19 years.

“That would mean pension payments distributed to retirees during those 19 years will come from premiums paid by those who are working,” Lin said.

But when those who are currently working retire, they will not be able to collect any more labor insurance payments, he said, adding that “it’s an injustice between generations,” he said.

Lin was also critical of Ma’s “Care Right Away” (馬上關懷) policy aimed at helping families living close to the poverty line but who do not qualify for subsidies for low-income families.

The “Care Right Away” plan states that village or borough chiefs or local social groups are responsible for identifying such families.

Village or borough chiefs will then distribute NT$5,000 per month to the families for up to six months. Village or borough chiefs will also receive an administrative fee of NT$200 for each case they handle.

“That’s just vote-buying,” Lin said.

“Besides, it may accelerate the destruction of the social welfare system. The fairness of the village or borough chiefs’ judgment may also come into question,” he said.

It would be better to have social workers verify the needs of such families and provide long-term assistance in the form of employment, education or medical care in addition to distributing subsidies, he said.

Other than setting up a sustainable social welfare system, participants at the forum agreed that progressive tax reform was needed to fund the welfare system.

“We say that paying taxes is a civic duty, but the fact is not everyone pays tax in this country. More often than not, it’s the rich that pay less taxes than the general public,” National Chengchi University public finance professor Tseng Chu-wei (曾巨威) told the forum.

“We must first require everyone to pay taxes, reform the taxation system and link the taxation system to the social welfare system,” Tseng said. “That way, we can take something from the rich to help the poor.”
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