The government is to raise childcare allowances by at least NT$1,500 (US$46.54) per month starting next year to try to boost the nation’s shrinking birthrate, the Executive Yuan said.
Starting on Jan. 1 next year, subsidies for parents with children younger than three attending public care centers are to be increased to NT$7,000 per month from NT$5,500, Premier Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) was quoted as saying in a statement issued by the Cabinet late on Monday.
Those using publicly subsidized private childcare centers or home babysitting services are to receive NT$13,000 a month, up from NT$8,500, it said.
Photo: Tien Yu-hua, Taipei Times
Additional childcare subsidies are to be offered to parents with two or three children and those from low-income or lower-middle-income families, it added.
The government budget for measures to counter the declining birthrate has grown from NT$15 billion in 2016 to a projected NT$120.1 billion next year, Chen said.
During that time, the number of new births has plummeted, falling from 193,844 in 2017 to 138,986 last year, Ministry of the Interior data showed.
New births in the first eight months of this year are trending slightly lower than last year, totaling only 88,935.
The number of births last year and early this year was likely affected by the spread of COVID-19 last year, when the pandemic was at its worst in the nation, but the downtrend has been steady since 2017.
Chen said the government would also inject NT$21.9 billion to fund tuition subsidies of at least NT$35,000 a year to all students at private universities starting in February next year to bridge the gap between private and public university tuition fees.
The average annual tuition fee at a public university is about NT$11,000, compared with NT$62,000 at private universities, Ministry of Education data showed.
The Cabinet’s latest announcement came in the wake of campaign pledges by New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜), the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) presidential candidate, earlier the same day aimed at encouraging people to have more children.
Hou promised that if he is elected to implement a one-time housing subsidy of NT$1 million for households in an income tax bracket below 30 percent with three or more children and who do not own property.
Currently, households with three children who are in an income tax bracket below 20 percent are entitled to a monthly subsidy of NT$7,000.
The nation’s low birthrate has been driven by people getting married and having children at an older age, and by housing and childcare costs soaring, Hou said.
If elected, he would also offer a one-time subsidy of NT$20,000 for women aged 30 to 40 to freeze their eggs, along with an annual egg storage fee subsidy of NT$2,000 for a period of five years, or a maximum total subsidy of NT$30,000, he said.
The policy could benefit 30,000 individuals and would have a budget of NT$900 million, he added.
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