The opposition parties’ suggestion of setting up a government-funded “Taiwan Future Account” for all children could deplete resources available for underprivileged groups, Minister of Health and Welfare Shih Chung-liang (石崇良) said yesterday.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) on Dec. 25 announced their draft future account plan, which suggests that the government set up a universal special investment account for children aged 12 or younger that can only be claimed after they turn 18 years old.
The account would have an initial deposit of NT$50,000 (US$1,581) for each child with a valid household registration, with NT$10,000 added every year up to the age of 12, and its savings would be invested in index funds on Taiwan’s stock market, the two parties said.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
A joint committee meeting took place at the legislature in Taipei yesterday to discuss the special act draft.
Prior to the meeting, Shih told reporters that children are the future masters of the country, and the government would do its best to take care of them, and is open to discussing any suggestions.
“However, every policy is a choice, and [government] resources are limited, so policies can have a crowding-out effect on each other,” he said.
The ministry in 2017 initiated the Children and Adolescent Future Education and Development Account program to help children from low-income and mid-low-income households, as well as children under long-term placement, to save their “first bucket of gold” when they turn 18 years old, he said.
The government provides a 1:1 matching contribution (with an upper limit of NT$15,000 per year) to the savings that the children deposit into the account, and the funds would be limited for “higher education, employment or entrepreneurship” usage, and only be withdrawn upon approval after they are 18 years old, the ministry’s Web site says about the 2017 program.
In the more than eight years since it was launched, as of last month, 39,127 people had opened an account, 65 percent of the eligible users, and the total savings in the accounts add up to more than NT$3.2 billion, the ministry said.
“Of course, we can discuss how to improve the [current] policy,” Shih said. “But regarding the universal future account, we are concerned that it would crowd out funding and resources for other policies.”
As Taiwan has become a super-aged society, the National Health Insurance system, the long-term care program and the expansion of services for the underprivileged stipulated by the Public Assistance Act (社會救助法) need resources, he said.
The ministry hopes the policy would be more carefully and comprehensively discussed, he added.
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