On June 3, the government began formally accepting applications from elderly citizens for welfare stipends. On the following day, under pressure of protests by legions of retired workers, legislators proposed a bill to amend the Temporary Act for Provision of Welfare Subsidies to the Elderly (敬老福利生活津貼暫行條例).
The NT$3,000 per month stipends have from the outset been a vote-winning measure. When they come under pressure, therefore, the politicians, who are in any case forever thinking about how to win more votes, had no choice but to propose a bill to further loosen the criteria for eligibility for the stipends.
This should come as no surprise. After all, people covered by the Labor Insurance program, along with those covered by the various other insurance programs for teachers, civil servants and military servicemen, are ineligible for the stipends. The sense of resentment felt by those excluded is not hard to imagine at all.
Under the present system, the government plays a dual role as far as teachers, civil servants and military servicemen are concerned. It is both their government and their employer. It is therefore obligated to provide retirement benefits in both capacities, and these employees receive double safeguards in retirement.
In contrast, only five percent of ordinary workers receive retirement pensions from employers under the Labor Standards Law (勞基法). The vast majority of retired laborers collect only meager allowances for the elderly from Labor Insurance. The government pays 10 percent of Labor Insurance premiums for laborers in permanent employment and 40 percent for temporary workers or those on short-term contracts. This is a far cry from the much more favorable pension system for retired civil servants. What workers are now demanding is what the government owes them as a result of this differential treatment.
Under the National Annuity System (國民年金制度) being developed by the Executive Yuan, each person will receive a minimum stipend of NT$3,000-a-month. Once the system comes into effect, for those whose period of contribution would otherwise be too short to make them eligible for the full NT$3,000, the government will make up the difference. In other words, the government will bear the fundamental responsibility of ensuring that each person will receive at least NT$3,000 in stipends each month.
Under the current Labor Insurance program, a person who receives a lump sum allowance for the elderly upon retirement is ineligible for the NT$3,000 a month senior welfare stipend until the allowance is deemed to have been "exhausted." Dividing the total allowance by 3,000 gives the number of months required to exhaust the allowance. According to the government's formula, NT$3,000, the equivalent of the monthly stipend, is assumed to have been "deducted" or spent from the allowance each month. But the problem is that the lump sum allowance for the elderly is funded primarily by monthly premiums paid by the retired person and his employer during his career, rather than by the government. So it is unfair to make anyone ineligible for government-funded senior welfare stipends just because they have received the allowance.
Until the National Annuity System comes into effect, the law should be revised so that NT$3,000 is "deducted" or spent each month only from that portion of the lump-sum allowance for the elderly that is funded by the government under its insurance programs for teachers, civil servants and military servicemen.
Although this would inevitably increase government expenditure, at least the principle of fair treatment would be maintained.
Jan Shou-jung is an assistant to a legislator.
Translated by Ethan Harkness
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