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.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
RSS