Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) is many things. He is notorious for his sharp tongue and unfiltered opinions. He sometimes puts on comical costumes, makes puzzling gestures or participates at events that some might deem unbecoming of the capital’s mayor. However, he is not wrong on the issue of a government subsidy for elderly people.
Although the next nine-in-one elections are still a year away, debate about the subsidy has been renewed, with a Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) mayoral hopeful vowing to reinstate the subsidy should he be elected.
On Saturday last week, former KMT legislator Ting Shou-chung (丁守中) announced he would join the KMT Taipei mayoral primary, even though he has failed four times before to win the party’s nomination.
During his seven terms as a lawmaker, Ting proposed many concrete and constructive policies, including efforts to increase the percentage of low-floor buses in Taipei and transform unused public school spaces into daycare centers or nurseries.
Ting, who has described the Taipei mayoral post as the “final destination of my political career,” could have successfully presented himself as a candidate different from traditional KMT politicians if not for his pledge to reinstate the city’s subsidy for older people — an annual cash giveaway partially axed by Ko in 2015 at the expense of his popularity rating.
Initially, city residents aged 65 or older received a subsidy of NT$1,500 to NT$10,000 (US$50 to US$333) each September, depending on their age, in celebration of the Double Ninth Festival. It cost the city about NT$700 million a year.
After running as a reformist and winning election in 2014, Ko introduced a wealth exclusion clause to the subsidy, making it available only to senior citizens from low and middle-income families.
Ko said that what elderly Taipei residents need is not a once-a-year cash subsidy, but a sustainable care system.
It is puzzling why Ting, who has vowed to improve the city’s global competitiveness and living standards, would want to reinstate a short-sighted policy when he is aware of Taipei’s aging population, which is projected to rise from 16 percent of city residents to 20 percent in 2021.
Taipei has the highest percentage of elderly residents, defined as people aged 65 or above, among the six special municipalities.
This upward trend is unstoppable and is happening nationwide. Advocating the expansion of the subsidy is tantamount to opposing the phasing out of the controversial 18 percent savings rate for civil servants hired before 1995.
Everyone would like better social welfare and benefits from the government, but they should never be introduced at the risk of bankrupting the government. One-off cash giveaways might increase a politician’s popularity among voters, but that positive sentiment would be short-lived and do little to improve the living standards of older residents.
As Ko said earlier this month, local governments that continue to dole out the so-called “Double Ninth payments” are doing so out of electoral calculations and they are nothing but an attempt to bribe voters.
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