Starting on Jan. 1, subsidies offered to families with young children would be extended to all parents of young children regardless of household income, the Executive Yuan said yesterday.
Currently, only households that pay less than 20 percent annual income tax — those who earn less than NT$1.21 million (US$37,685) per year — are eligible for the subsidies. The government offers childcare allowances to parents with children younger than two and daycare subsidies to those with children under five.
A school subsidy offered to parents with five-year-old children would also be extended to families with five-year-olds who do not attend school, the Executive Yuan said, adding that the parents of 41,900 five-year-olds nationwide are expected to benefit from the new policy.
Taipei Times file photo
Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) announced the policies while presenting a report on government measures to tackle the nation’s declining birthrate.
“Our aim is take better care of families with kids six and under, and the two new policies together will benefit 1.03 million children across Taiwan,” the Ministry of Education said.
From Jan. 1, parents with children under two would be offered up to NT$5,000 per month to help with public daycare fees, or NT$8,500 for children attending so-called “quasi-public” daycares or nurseries.
Those with children aged two to six would have their monthly subsidies for public daycare fees capped at NT$1,000 for the first child, while the limit would be NT$2,000 for non-profit daycares and NT$3,000 for quasi-public daycares.
Su also said the minimum monthly wage for public daycare workers who care for children would be increased from NT$28,000 to NT$35,000.
Those working at quasi-public daycares and kindergartens would be paid a minimum of NT$36,000, up from NT$30,000, he said, adding that the increase is expected to benefit 75,000 childcare workers.
Su said the increase aims to help retain childcare workers at public and quasi-public daycare centers and kindergartens.
The Ministry of Education said its budget for next year was increased by NT$5.5 billion to pay for the new policies, bringing its budget to more than NT$100 billion.
The legislature’s Education and Culture Committee on Thursday last week passed the resolution abolishing the income requirement for childcare subsidies.
The Ministry of Education first began proposing measures to tackle the declining birthrate in 2018, and one of the measures it came up with was raising childcare allowances and subsidies, which was implemented in August, Minister of Education Pan Wen-chung (潘文忠) said.
NATIONAL SECURITY: Authorities are working to confirm the identities of the military personnel involved and investigating possible illegal conduct and regulatory violations Authorities are probing possible national security implications after Kinmen police and immigration officers on Sunday found a Chinese woman allegedly posing as a tourist while engaging in prostitution involving more than 10 military personnel. The woman, surnamed Chen (陳), has since been deported, authorities said, adding that investigators are still working to confirm the identities of those implicated, as the records only listed code names and aliases. The case stemmed from a report received by the Kinmen District Prosecutors’ Office on Friday last week from the Jinhu Precinct of the Kinmen County Police Bureau. On Sunday, police, along with the National Immigration
GLOBALGIVING: ‘ Caving to external pressure is not acceptable for an organization that has cultivated justice reform and human rights for 30 years,’ one NGO said A slew of non-government organizations (NGOs) have withdrawn from the GlobalGiving fundraising platform after it announced it would use “Chinese Taipei” instead of “Taiwan” from next month. The Taiwan Good Rice Association wrote on Facebook on Friday that it was informed on April 28 via a teleconference call of the change, which was made because the platform wanted to operate in China. Taiwan Good Rice is to terminate all cooperative relationships with GlobalGiving in response to the platform’s “unilateral and non-negotiable” decision to remove references to Taiwan, the NGO said. “Taiwan is in the official name of Taiwan Good Rice Association and the
HEAVY WEATHER: Typhoon Jangmi is due to crash straight into the Ryukyus as airlines look to shift flights to larger aircraft or cancel flights to Okinawa entirely Taiwan’s international air carriers announced flight adjustments over the weekend as Typhoon Jangmi is forecast to hit the Ryukyu Islands today and tomorrow. The Central Weather Administration (CWA) upgraded Jangmi from a tropical storm to a typhoon at 8am yesterday, with the eye located 580km south of Naha city. It was moving north at 19kph. Today, China Airlines’ CI-120, CI-121, CI-122 and CI-123 flights between Taoyuan and Naha, Okinawa, have been canceled as well as CI-132 and CI-133 between Kaohsiung and Naha. EVA Air’s BR-112, BR-113, BR-186 and BR-185 flights between Taoyuan and Naha are also canceled. Low-cost carrier Tigerair Taiwan canceled IT-230,
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) yesterday briefed her party’s Central Standing Committee regarding her scheduled visit to the US between Monday next week and June 16, saying that her purpose would be to persuade the US that the Republic of China (ROC) Constitution was a “one China” constitution that would foster stable and peaceful cross-strait relations. The ROC Constitution is the most important defense for all Taiwanese citizens, as it upholds our democracy and has contributed to our robust economy, which aligns with international and US interests, she said. “We would not be troublemakers and drag the US under,”
RSS