Article 28 Adequate Standard of Living and Social Protections
PWDs are mostly invisible poor with unstable economic circumstances
Older PWDs face difficulties in living independently due to insufficient social security protections and support: As described in Paragraph 229, Article 27 of the State Report, PWDs have low labor force participation and face unemployment rates three times the national average. Without stable sources of income and daily expenditures that are higher than the average citizen, PWDs easily become the invisible poor. Moreover, PWD pensions under the National Pension Insurance provides a basic guaranteed monthly sum of NT 4,872. However, recipients of this scheme cannot simultaneously receive elderly subsistence assistance, PWD subsistence assistance, and other related social benefit or subsidies. Present eligibility to apply for many subsistence-level financial assistance and subsidy programs, including the “Public Assistance Act” and “Management of Subsistence Assistance Fund Disbursements to Persons with Disabilities,” depend on calculations of the monetary value of family income (divided by the number of persons in the household). Many PWDs who are unable to work become dependent on and burdens to their families. If these PWDs start working, their incomes may affect their eligibility for financial assistance. This reduces the incentive for PWDs to alleviate poverty, preventing them from becoming economically independent, self-sufficient individuals.
Inadequate subsistence protections for PWDs under incarceration: According to Article 4 of the “Management of Subsistence Assistance Fund Disbursements to Persons with Disabilities,” financial assistance payments cease once a PWD is “sentenced to prison, detained for case investigation, or legally detained.” As families on financial assistance are already economically vulnerable and labor and living conditions in current correctional facilities are very poor14, incarcerated convicts may have to depend even more on support from relatives and friends or illegally work to afford daily items. Correctional facilities also do not offer many opportunities for PWDs to learn appropriate life skills that help them reintegrate in society upon release. Ceasing subsistence-level financial assistance to imprisoned PWDs creates severe negative consequences for individuals and families. Many families in such situations are forced to go into debt or sell personal property to make up for their financial shortfalls.
Recommendations to the Government:
Older PWD applicants for Government financial assistance (such as for assistive devices, personnel support, rental assistance) should have their assets and income calculated separately from those of their family members to facilitate economic independence and independent living. See Article 19, Paragraph 149.
When dealing with PWDs who are unemployed or do not have stable incomes, governments at various levels of jurisdiction should coordinate cooperative efforts to avoid conflicting regulations governing various financial assistance programs (and should, to the extent possible, allow for a single application). Such a move seeks to avoid situations where PWDs are unable to maintain a basic standard of living.
Strengthen social safety nets including the “Public Assistance Act,” giving special consideration to persons with multiple needs who are particularly vulnerable. Such burdens should not fall entirely on individual families, and the Government should actively intervene to provide support. These steps can help avoid a repeat of past tragedies when families with PWDs were unable to deal with the burdens of long-term care and looking after children, and turned to killing family members or committing suicide with their children. See Article 23, Paragraphs 165-166.
The Government should provide materials and data to explain the conditions of incarcerated PWDs (including the labor conditions and incomes of incarcerated non-PWDs for the purposes of comparison) and provide plans to improve living and labor conditions. The Government should review current regulations on subsistence-level financial assistance for incarcerated PWDs, and consider whether to trace past cases and provide some form of retroactive compensation.
- Using Taipei Correction Facilities in 2014 as an example, every incarcerated person receives an average annual income of NT1,447. See Civil Media Taiwan’s video archive, “Inmate Earned Income Does Not Meet Basic Expenditure; Agency of Corrections: Most Firms Do Not Wish to Come into the Prisons.”