Responding to civic activists’ calls for higher welfare benefits for the elderly, Minister of the Interior Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) yesterday said that the government would need at least NT$10 billion (US$343.6 million) to cover additional expenses if pensions and living subsidies for the elderly were increased.
Jiang told a press conference that at present, about 927,000 senior citizens are entitled to a guaranteed pension payment of NT$3,000 per month or a monthly living subsidy of NT$6,000 for low-income individuals and NT$3,000 for middle-income people.
If the welfare payments are raised by NT$1,000 in each category, the government would need an additional budget of NT$10 billion to cover these expenses, he said.
Jiang said the central government has allocated NT$407.2 billion for social welfare expenses next year, an increase of NT$38.9 billion, or 10.6 percent, from the current budget.
Social welfare expenditure would account for 21 percent of the general budget next year, the highest ever, he said.
In the Ministry of the Interior budget alone, social welfare expenses for next year would reach more than NT$95.2 billion, representing an annual growth of 14.66 percent.
He said that financial subsidies are only one of various ways of looking after the elderly population. Others include a long-term healthcare system embracing diversified services such as home care, institutional care and services for those who are physically or mentally challenged, he added.
Earlier in the day, representatives of the Federation for the Welfare of the Elderly pleaded for an increase in pension payments at the Legislative Yuan, saying that although commodity prices have kept increasing, the living allowance for the elderly has not risen for 17 years.
For the past nine years, the guaranteed minimum pension payment for those aged over 65 who do not enjoy any other kind of social welfare, have an annual income of less than NT$500,000, and own property valued at less than NT$5 million, has been maintained at NT$3,000 per month.
Unemployed seniors can no longer live on the existing subsidy programs, as living costs have kept surging, federation secretary-general Wu Yu-chin (吳玉琴) said.
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