A subsidy scheme by the Taipei City Government deprives elderly people with disabilities of their right to collect full welfare benefits, two lawmakers said yesterday as they called on the city to rectify the problem.
Taipei has since 2002 offered separate subsidies for elderly people with disabilities, independent Legislator Freddy Lim (林昶佐) and Taipei City Councilor Sabrina Lim (林亮君) told a news conference at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei.
This means that people entering a nursing home can only apply for aid specifically for elderly live-in care, even if they have a record of disability, they said.
Photo: CNA
This is unfair to those with disabilities and their family members, the two added.
According to Ministry of Health and Welfare regulations, a person with disabilities has the right to apply for aid with the responsible local authority after admission into a care facility, regardless of whether it is a long-term care home or any other kind of senior care center, Freddy Lim said.
Other local governments — including New Taipei City and Taoyuan — allow elderly people with disabilities to apply for whatever aid is applicable to their situation, he said.
Taipei’s unfair distinction has caused many residents to move elsewhere to receive the welfare that is rightfully theirs, he added.
Sabrina Lim said that she at the end of last year sent a written request to the Taipei Department of Social Welfare for an explanation.
The department said the budget for disability aid would skyrocket if it changed the policy, making adjustment impossible, she said.
Sabrina Lim said she then turned to the ministry for assistance, which last month instructed the city government to bring its policy in line with central government regulations.
As of December last year, 1,977 people in Taipei had received senior live-in care assistance, Sabrina Lim said.
Among them, 1,295 were also classified as disabled, meaning that the city’s policy has barred them from receiving disability assistance, she added.
Elderly people with disabilities are the “disadvantaged among the disadvantaged,” said Shih Ting-hung (施定宏), head of the Taipei Community Elderly Long-term Care Development Association.
Long-term care places immense financial pressure on seniors and their families, Shih said, adding that a policy change would be a great help to Taipei’s elderly residents.
The military has spotted two Chinese warships operating in waters near Penghu County in the Taiwan Strait and sent its own naval and air forces to monitor the vessels, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. Beijing sends warships and warplanes into the waters and skies around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, drawing condemnation from Taipei. While the ministry offers daily updates on the locations of Chinese military aircraft, it only rarely gives details of where Chinese warships are operating, generally only when it detects aircraft carriers, as happened last week. A Chinese destroyer and a frigate entered waters to the southwest
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Instead of focusing solely on the threat of a full-scale military invasion, the US and its allies must prepare for a potential Chinese “quarantine” of Taiwan enforced through customs inspections, Stanford University Hoover fellow Eyck Freymann said in a Foreign Affairs article published on Wednesday. China could use various “gray zone” tactics in “reconfiguring the regional and ultimately the global economic order without a war,” said Freymann, who is also a nonresident research fellow at the US Naval War College. China might seize control of Taiwan’s links to the outside world by requiring all flights and ships entering or leaving Taiwan
The next minimum wage hike is expected to exceed NT$30,000, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday during an award ceremony honoring “model workers,” including migrant workers, at the Presidential Office ahead of Workers’ Day today. Lai said he wished to thank the awardees on behalf of the nation and extend his most sincere respect for their hard work, on which Taiwan’s prosperity has been built. Lai specifically thanked 10 migrant workers selected for the award, saying that although they left their home countries to further their own goals, their efforts have benefited Taiwan as well. The nation’s industrial sector and small businesses lay
RSS