Taiwan is facing growing poverty among elderly households as people aged 65 or older with a near-poor background have multiplied over the past decade, a report from the Legislative Yuan’s Budget Center said yesterday.
The report urged the government to address elderly poverty.
Citing the “Report on the Survey of Family Income and Expenditure” from the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS), it said the average annual disposable income per household in the top quintile was NT$2.3 million (US$71,801) last year, a 2.6 percent increase from the previous year, while the figure in the bottom quintile was NT$376,000, up by 3.0 percent, indicating an income difference of 6.12 times between the two groups.
Photo: Taipei Times
People aged 65 or older made up 25.96 percent of heads of household last year, up by 12.68 and 0.9 percentage points from 2001 and 2022 respectively, with those in the lowest quintile rising from 40.71 percent in 2001 to 63.62 percent last year, DGBAS data showed.
That suggested household heads aged 65 or older in the quintile of the lowest household income is increasing and has exceeded 60 percent of the quintile, the DGBAS data showed.
The report also showed the average household size was 2.79 people last year, with an average disposable income of NT$1.14 million and an average expenditure of NT$861,300.
For households whose head was aged 65 or older, the average household size was 1.92 people, with an average disposable income of NT$724,400 and an average expenditure of NT$621,800 — all lower than the average figures, it said.
The bottom quintile of households with a head aged 65 or older consisted of 1.16 million households, accounting for 49 percent of all households headed by a person 65 or older with an average disposable income of NT$356,200, which is less than their average expenditure of NT$393,400 at a difference of NT$37,800, it cited the report as saying.
About half of households with a head aged 65 or older had lower annual disposable income than their expenditure last year, and the income-expenditure difference is worryingly greater than that of the whole, it said.
Meanwhile, Ministry of Health and Welfare data showed that among all low to middle-income households, 23.45 percent had a head aged 45 to 64 and 23.38 percent had a head aged 65 or older last year, both a new high in the past 10 years.
Among all low-income households, those headed by a person 65 or older accounted for a record 17.67 percent in the past decade, it showed.
People aged 65 or older from a low to middle or low-income households have multiplied from 2014 and amounted to 64,740 people last year, the ministry said, calling for the government to pay attention to older people with economically disadvantaged backgrounds.
FALSE DOCUMENTS? Actor William Liao said he was ‘voluntarily cooperating’ with police after a suspect was accused of helping to produce false medical certificates Police yesterday questioned at least six entertainers amid allegations of evasion of compulsory military service, with Lee Chuan (李銓), a member of boy band Choc7 (超克7), and actor Daniel Chen (陳大天) among those summoned. The New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office in January launched an investigation into a group that was allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified medical documents. Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) has been accused of being one of the group’s clients. As the investigation expanded, investigators at New Taipei City’s Yonghe Precinct said that other entertainers commissioned the group to obtain false documents. The main suspect, a man surnamed
DEMOGRAPHICS: Robotics is the most promising answer to looming labor woes, the long-term care system and national contingency response, an official said Taiwan is to launch a five-year plan to boost the robotics industry in a bid to address labor shortages stemming from a declining and aging population, the Executive Yuan said yesterday. The government approved the initiative, dubbed the Smart Robotics Industry Promotion Plan, via executive order, senior officials told a post-Cabinet meeting news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s population decline would strain the economy and the nation’s ability to care for vulnerable and elderly people, said Peter Hong (洪樂文), who heads the National Science and Technology Council’s (NSTC) Department of Engineering and Technologies. Projections show that the proportion of Taiwanese 65 or older would
The government is considering polices to increase rental subsidies for people living in social housing who get married and have children, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday. During an interview with the Plain Law Movement (法律白話文) podcast, Cho said that housing prices cannot be brought down overnight without affecting banks and mortgages. Therefore, the government is focusing on providing more aid for young people by taking 3 to 5 percent of urban renewal projects and zone expropriations and using that land for social housing, he said. Single people living in social housing who get married and become parents could obtain 50 percent more
Democracies must remain united in the face of a shifting geopolitical landscape, former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) told the Copenhagen Democracy Summit on Tuesday, while emphasizing the importance of Taiwan’s security to the world. “Taiwan’s security is essential to regional stability and to defending democratic values amid mounting authoritarianism,” Tsai said at the annual forum in the Danish capital. Noting a “new geopolitical landscape” in which global trade and security face “uncertainty and unpredictability,” Tsai said that democracies must remain united and be more committed to building up resilience together in the face of challenges. Resilience “allows us to absorb shocks, adapt under
RSS