Reflecting the high rate of unemployment, the number of unemployed workers who applied for government subsidies for their children’s tuition surged 70 percent last October from a year earlier, the Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) said yesterday.
The latest data released by the council's Department of Labor Welfare showed that 5,243 unemployed parents applied for subsidies last October to pay for their children’s tuition in the first semester of the school year. This compares with 3,065 people who filed applications a year earlier.
The number is the second highest since the subsidy began to be offered to unemployed workers seven years ago. The highest number on record was in 2003, when unemployment was severe and more than 6,000 unemployed parents took advantage of the subsidy.
Since the launch of the program, the council has approved and paid out NT$302 million (US$9 million) in tuition subsidies as of the end of last month, helping 44,574 students in more than 30,000 families.
The council said it would accept new subsidy applications for the second semester of this school year from Tuesday through April 15.
The program provides a tuition subsidy of NT$3,000 for each student enrolled in a public high school or vocational school each semester, NT$5,000 for private high schools or vocational schools, NT$5,000 for public colleges and NT$10,000 for private colleges.
To qualify for the subsidy, the applicant must have been involuntarily unemployed for at least six consecutive months and as of Monday, still be unemployed. The total combined income of the applicant and the applicant's spouse for 2008 must not exceed NT$1,140,000.
Application forms are available at local employment service centers or can be downloaded at the council's official Web site: www.cla.gov.tw.
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