The Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) said it would offer labor insurance loans to insured workers living in poverty before the Lunar New Year.
CLA Minister Jennifer Wang (王如玄) told lawmakers at the legislature’s Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene Committee yesterday that the council would have the plan drawn up within a week and that the loan would be available to applicants before the Lunar New Year in February.
This year would mark the seventh time that the council has offered the annual labor insurance loan.
The loan scheme is designed to help workers in poor financial circumstances get through the Lunar New Year holiday by offering loans of up to NT$100,000 based on workers’ past records of paying labor insurance fees and other conditions.
In the past, the council has provided labor insurance loans of up to NT$100,000 to workers who have been enrolled in the labor insurance program for at least 15 years and do not have a bad record of paying their insurance fees.
Last year, about NT$19.2 billion (US$600 million) was lent out to eligible applicants, the council said.
The council has not yet announced this year’s loan rate, but officials said that because the loan is intended to help the poor and not to earn profit, the rate would not be much higher than the average deposit rate of the labor insurance fund.
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