The Ministry of Labor is planning to expand a waiver program for applying to hire foreign at-home caregivers by September, which is expected to benefit about 55,000 people nationwide, Deputy Minister of Labor Wang An-pang (王安邦) said yesterday.
There are 910,000 people in Taiwan aged 80 or older, and 381,000 of them require care, Wang said, citing Ministry of the Interior (MOI) statistics from March.
The Barthel Index measures a person’s ability to complete daily activities and it is a significant parameter in evaluating a family’s eligibility to hire a foreign caregiver. There have been calls to relax the criteria so that people who need full-time care do not need a Barthel Index assessment to hire foreign caregivers.
Photo: Wu Po-hsuan, Taipei Times
Wang said that the Ministry of Labor understands need to ease requirements, but if the government complied, it might affect the capacity to provide long-term caregivers for people with severe chronic issues.
The ministry hopes that its waiver program could meet the public’s needs and ease excess demand, Wang said.
Ministry of Health and Welfare statistics show that 41.7 percent of those aged 80 or older have some disability, Wang said.
The Ministry of Labor estimates that only 530,000 people aged 80 or older are healthy or semi-healthy, Wang said.
The Ministry of Labor allows three groups to apply for its waiver program: people who have used long-term healthcare programs for more than six months, those with mild cognitive impairments, and those with particular forms of physical and mental challenges.
As of April, about 62,000 applications for foreign at-home caregivers had been approved, of which 32,000 used the waiver program, Wang said.
The Ministry of Labor expects people benefiting from the waiver program to increase, Wang said.
The ministry is expanding the program, with amendments scheduled for September to include people aged 80 or older with long-term health issues, irreversible conditions of physical challenges and those who are physically challenged with a long-term record of health issues living in rural areas, Wang said.
If passed, about 55,000 people stand to benefit, Wang said.
Separately, the Legislative Yuan’s Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene Committee yesterday held a public hearing on the hiring of foreign caregivers under the Employment Service Act (就業服務法) to hear public opinions on whether the law should be amended.
The hearing is in response to the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) proposal to amend the act and waive the Barthel Index for people who are aged 80 or above.
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