President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) wrote on Facebook late on Friday that her administration plans, within four years, to double child subsidies from NT$2,500 to NT$5,000 and extend them from birth to six years old, instead of four years old.
The new policy would lighten the financial burden of young couples and encourage people to have children, as well as letting grandparents care for children, she said.
Tsai, who is seeking re-election as the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) presidential candidate, added that her administration has the most public welfare policies in the nation’s history.
Photo: Wang Chun-chi, Taipei Times
Tsai pledged that she would protect Taiwan’s future, ensuring that people can continue to raise their young in safety here.
Yesterday, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) said that the KMT is cautiously optimistic about the child subsidy policy.
However, the DPP has stooped to the wholesale copying of KMT policies to salvage its campaign, KMT deputy spokesperson Hung Yu-chien (洪于茜) added.
The policy of greater subsidies was first proposed by Hon Hai Precision Industry Co founder Terry Gou (郭台銘) in the KMT presidential primary, Hung said.
Asked for comment, Gou said that he did not mind if someone “took” his policy proposal, adding that it made him happy that people are open to suggestions.
Meanwhile, Huang Man-hsin (黃曼昕), campaign spokesperson for Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), the KMT’s presidential candidate, said that the Tsai administration is rolling out the pork barrels and copying policies from the Han campaign.
However, the Tsai administration was only copying half of the policy, Huang said, adding that Han would unveil his child subsidy policy next week.
Tsai’s policies on daycare and child subsidies were long in the planning and the announcement was simply an extension of existing policies, DPP spokesperson Lee Yen-jong (李晏榕) said.
The policy has already been implemented and there is no question of “copying” or “scrambling to play catch-up,” she said.
Additional reporting by Ho Yu-hua and Chen Yu-fu
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