A “nanny veto” has tripped up efforts to increase childcare subsidies, campaigners said yesterday, calling on the Taipei City Government to allow parents to apply directly for subsidies without submitting a “letter of consent” from nannies.
“This should be very straightforward, subsidies are for parents and they are the ones appyling for the money — so a nanny’s should not have a veto right,” Childcare Policy Alliance convener Liu Yu-hsiu (劉毓秀) said.
While the city government began offering monthly childcare subsidies of NT$3,000 per child to working parents in January, campaigners said that only 13 percent of households with young children have applied, far below the city’s target of 70 percent.
“The Taipei City Government created a distorted application process,” Childcare Policy Alliance spokesman Wang Chao-ching (王兆慶) said, adding that a “strange” requirement asking for a “letter of consent” from the nanny keeps parents from applying.
The letter refers to a two-page form that nannies are required to fill, providing their addresses, wages and hours.
Wang said the extensive list of regulations included on the form might make some nannies uncomfortable.
“There is a lot of information about the fines they can levy if you do not follow the law,” he said. “On the other hand, refusing to sign does not have any consequences — you cannot fine someone for failing to provide their signature.”
The lack of financial incentive for nannies might also make them unwilling to sign the form, Taiwan Labor and Social Policy Research Association executive director Chang Feng-yi (張烽益) said.
“There is no benefit to them if they fill out the form; they still get the same salary,” he said.
Taiwan Women’s Link chairperson Huang Sue-ying (黃淑英) said the form presented a “moral hazard” because some nannies might demand kickbacks in return for their signature.
Awakening Foundation policy director Chyn Yu-rong (覃玉蓉) said Taipei’s poorly designed application process reflected broader problems.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching