DistantNews
🇹🇼 Taiwan /Culture & Society

Taoyuan Elder Card Usage Low; Councilors Demand Broader Use

From Liberty Times · (15m ago) Chinese Critical tone

Translated from Chinese, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

TLDR

  • Taoyuan City's elder and welfare card, offering 800 points monthly, has low usage, with over 60% of users spending less than 100 points.
  • City councilors criticize the card's limited use, restricted to transportation and sports centers, and urge expansion to include shopping and medical registration fees.
  • The Social Affairs Bureau is evaluating the feasibility of expanding services and potential funding sources, noting increased usage for public transport subsidies.

Taoyuan City's well-intentioned elder and welfare card program, designed to support its senior citizens, is facing criticism for its limited utility and consequently low usage rates. Despite distributing 470,000 cards, each loaded with 800 monthly points, a significant majority of users are not fully utilizing the benefits. Councilors like Yu Pei-chen and Cheng Shu-fang highlight that over 60% of cardholders spend less than 100 points, with only 8.1% exceeding 500 points. This points to a fundamental disconnect between the program's design and the actual needs and preferences of the elderly population it aims to serve.

The core of the issue, as articulated by the city councilors, lies in the restrictive scope of the card's application. Currently, it is primarily usable for public transportation and at national sports centers. This narrow focus fails to acknowledge the broader daily expenses and needs of seniors, such as purchasing essential nutrition or covering basic medical registration fees. The councilors' proposal to expand the card's uses, drawing parallels to other municipalities that allow usage at farmers' markets or for medical co-pays, suggests a more practical and user-centric approach.

The reason for the low usage rate is that it is 'not user-friendly'.

— Cheng Shu-fangThe city councilor criticizes the limitations of the elder and welfare card, attributing its low usage to its restricted functionality.

From a local Taoyuan perspective, this debate is crucial. It reflects a broader conversation about how public services are delivered and whether they truly meet the needs of the community they are intended for. While the Social Affairs Bureau acknowledges the need for evaluation and potential expansion, citing budget constraints and the complexity of adding new services like medical fee subsidies (especially given the absence of municipal hospitals), the councilors' pushback is firm. They argue that the current system is simply "not user-friendly" and that a more generous and flexible approach is warranted. The low utilization rates are not just a statistical anomaly; they represent a missed opportunity to genuinely enhance the quality of life for Taoyuan's elderly residents, prompting calls for a more open-minded and adaptable welfare policy.

We are evaluating the feasibility of providing other services through the elder and welfare card and potential budget sources.

— Chen Bao-minThe Director of the Social Affairs Bureau responds to the councilors' concerns, indicating a review of the card's expanded use.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by Liberty Times in Chinese. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

More Stories

From Our Blog