Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers on Thursday urged the Ministry of Agriculture to ease the limit on financial status eligibility for elderly farmer welfare allowance, in light of increased consumer and property prices.
DPP Legislator Lin Chun-hsien (林俊憲) told a news conference that although the welfare allowance for elderly farmers has been raised, its criteria for applicants’ financial status has not been revised for 14 years.
The Provisional Act Governing the Welfare Allowance for Elderly Farmers (老農津貼暫行條例) stipulates that the allowance amount should be adjusted once every four years, and it was increased to NT$8,110 last year from NT$7,000 in 2012, when the scheme was implemented, Lin said.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
Over the same period, the consumer price index climbed to 108.82 from 92.09, up by 18 percent, while the average land value nationwide rose by more than 70 percent to NT$36.29 million (US$1.21 million) from NT$20.5 million per hectare, he said.
Cost of living and real-estate value are the two factors relevant to the financial status eligibility for the allowance, Lin said, adding that many applicants are ruled out due to soaring consumer and property prices.
Lawmakers have proposed different versions of eligibility relaxation measures, such as adjusting criteria that would make them ineligible for the welfare allowance, including raising the cutoff for individual taxable income from all sources other than agriculture from NT$500,000 to NT$600,000, and for individual-owned property value from NT$5 million to NT$8 million, he said.
The Executive Yuan should integrate the different proposals and put forward its own plan as soon as possible, Lin said.
DPP Legislator Kuo Kuo-wen (郭國文) said that he received complaints from many agricultural workers about being disqualified from the allowance scheme due to the increased property prices.
The Ministry of Agriculture should examine how many agricultural workers have been disqualified and evaluate their losses, he said.
Kuo also suggested using the consumer price index for elderly households when assessing the applicants, as well as revising the eligibility requirements as frequently as adjusting the allowance, he added.
The proposal would be sent to the Executive Yuan for review, along with eight social welfare subsidies, Kuo cited the legislature’s Economics Committee as saying.
He added that it should be addressed separately, given that the allowance is offered as agricultural workers’ pensions instead of subsidies for disadvantaged groups.
Department of Farmers’ Service senior engineer Wang Tung-liang (王東良) said that the ministry in December 2023 submitted an integrated proposal to the Executive Yuan.
However, the Executive Yuan considered the allowance as related to social welfare subsidies and decided to explore the schemes through more interagency meetings, he said.
DPP legislators Chen Ting-fei (陳亭妃) and Chen Chun-yu (陳俊宇) on May 16 proposed amendments to the act, aimed at relaxing the allowance’s criteria of individual-owned property value from NT$5 million to NT$8 million, and personal housing value from NT$4 million to NT$6.4 million.
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