A total of 1,450 applicants have requested live-in migrant caregivers under relaxed eligibility rules that went into effect on Aug. 1, Minister of Labor Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) said today before attending a meeting at the Legislative Yuan.
There had been 1,450 applicants under the amendment as of Sunday, and the number of applicants during the second week of the month doubled from the first week, Hung said.
Photo: Lin Chih-yi, Taipei Times
Before the new rules took effect, the Ministry of Labor forecast an increase of 100,000 applications for domestic caregivers, but that rush has yet to materialize.
Hung said applications recorded during the second week indicated that "demand is growing."
"Which direction it will take remains to be seen. The ministry, as the governing agency, will have accompanying measures in place in light of a rise in demand," Hung said.
Opposition lawmakers from the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People's Party (TPP) in December last year pushed through bills to relax rules on recruiting migrant caregivers, allowing people aged 80 and older to hire migrant live-in caregivers without passing a Barthel Index assessment.
Additionally, the legal revision allowed people aged 70 to 79 who have been diagnosed with stage two or later-stage cancer to hire a live-in caregiver without passing the assessment.
Previously, anyone who wanted to hire a migrant caregiver to provide full-time care had to pass a Barthel Index assessment to prove they had the need, but people aged under 80 needed a lower score (showing they were more seriously ill) than those aged over 80 to qualify.
Based on ministry estimates of new caregiver demand under the new rules, there were concerns the changes would make it harder or more expensive for severely ill people to get live-in help, as caregivers opted to work for clients who were easier to care for.
There were also predictions of caregiver shortages because of the difficulty of recruiting and training so many new migrant workers.
However, the ministry has continued to say that it would prioritize applicants with critical care needs when reviewing applications.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday said it had deployed patrol vessels to expel a China Coast Guard ship and a Chinese fishing boat near Pratas Island (Dongsha Island, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. The China Coast Guard vessel was 28 nautical miles (52km) northeast of Pratas at 6:15am on Thursday, approaching the island’s restricted waters, which extend 24 nautical miles from its shoreline, the CGA’s Dongsha-Nansha Branch said in a statement. The Tainan, a 2,000-tonne cutter, was deployed by the CGA to shadow the Chinese ship, which left the area at 2:39pm on Friday, the statement said. At 6:31pm on Friday,
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy’s (PLAN) third aircraft carrier, the Fujian, would pose a steep challenge to Taiwan’s ability to defend itself against a full-scale invasion, a defense expert said yesterday. Institute of National Defense and Security Research analyst Chieh Chung (揭仲) made the comment hours after the PLAN confirmed the carrier recently passed through the Taiwan Strait to conduct “scientific research tests and training missions” in the South China Sea. China has two carriers in operation — the Liaoning and the Shandong — with the Fujian undergoing sea trials. Although the PLAN needs time to train the Fujian’s air wing and
The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) put Taiwan in danger, Ma Ying-jeou Foundation director Hsiao Hsu-tsen (蕭旭岑) said yesterday, hours after the de facto US embassy said that Beijing had misinterpreted World War II-era documents to isolate Taiwan. The AIT’s comments harmed the Republic of China’s (ROC) national interests and contradicted a part of the “six assurances” stipulating that the US would not change its official position on Taiwan’s sovereignty, Hsiao said. The “six assurances,” which were given by then-US president Ronald Reagan to Taiwan in 1982, say that Washington would not set a date for ending arm sales to Taiwan, consult
A Taiwanese academic yesterday said that Chinese Ambassador to Denmark Wang Xuefeng (王雪峰) disrespected Denmark and Japan when he earlier this year allegedly asked Japan’s embassy to make Taiwan’s representatives leave an event in Copenhagen. The Danish-language Berlingske on Sunday reported the incident in an article with the headline “The emperor’s birthday ended in drama in Copenhagen: More conflict may be on the way between Denmark and China.” It said that on Feb. 26, the Japanese embassy in Denmark held an event for Japanese Emperor Naruhito’s birthday, with about 200 guests in attendance, including representatives from Taiwan. After addressing the Japanese hosts, Wang
RSS