The number of low-income households and individuals in Taiwan reached 146,000 and 357,000 respectively as of the end of last year, up 13.8 percent and 13.7 percent from a year earlier, statistics released by the Ministry of the Interior showed on Saturday.
As of the end of last year, the country had 89,000 low-to-medium-income households (also known as the near-poor) totaling 282,000 people, according to the ministry figures.
The ministry said 35,000 low- income and low-to-medium income households totaling 639,000 people were approved for financial aid under the amended Social Assistance Act (社會救助法), representing 2.9 percent of the nation’s total households and 2.7 percent of the total population.
The act, which took effect in July 2011, lowered the income threshold to define poor and near-poor people, making more Taiwanese eligible for financial support.
The number of Taiwanese applying for aid under the new definition continued to rise last year, accounting for some of the increase in those identified in Taiwan as poor, the ministry said.
The three cities with the highest number of low-income families and individuals approved for social support as of the end of last year were Greater Kao-hsiung, New Taipei City (新北市) and Taipei.
Taitung, Penghu and Pingtung counties had the highest percentage of individuals and households receiving low-income subsidies.
The ministry said that last year, cities and counties around the country spent a total of NT$11.5 billion (US$387.34 million) on social welfare, including NT$10.98 billion on financial aid for the poor and near poor.
Spending on social assistance increased by NT$2.93 billion year-on-year, with subsidies for living support increasing by NT$2.8 billion.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,