Outline       

     This chapter is concerned with statistics on social insurance, social assistance and relief, low income households, social welfare services, and social welfare expenditure. Social welfare statistics are compiled by the Ministry of Interior from monthly and quarterly reports regularly submitted by Municipal Governments. As it is hard to secure data concerning private social relief institutions, readers shall pay attention to revisions to data of the previous year.
     Social Insurance -- It shall cover National Health Insurance, Government Employees' and School Staffs' Insurance, Retired Government Employees' Insurance, Labor Insurance, Farmers' Health Insurance and   Employment Insurance. 
     Low Income Household -- Before FY1998, the criteria for a low income household were set by the provincial (or) municipal government every year on the basis of the minimum of subsistence required for each locality. In Taiwan Province and Kaohsiung Municipality, the minimum of subsistence were fixed at the level no more than one-third of monthly average income per capita for the previous year. In Taipei Municipality, the cut point was set at a level no more than 40 percent of the current expenditure derived from the survey on household income and expenditure for the previous year. After FY1999, the minimum of subsistence is computed by the central and municipal competent authorities as 60% of the per capita nonproductive expenditure of the latest year announced by the central department of budget, accounting and statistics.
     Net Expenditure for Social Welfare -- The expenditure is compiled on a basis of fiscal year and it is net of the double counting arising from inter-governmental transfers. The social welfare expenditure covered social insurance (including expenditures for pension and survivors' benefits), social relief, benefit service, nationwide employment service, medical care and community development, and environmental protection before FY1989. Since FY1990, it excluded expenditure on community development, environmental protection and expenditures for pension and survivors' benefits. Data from FY1981 to 1989 are recalculated by the definition of the social welfare expenditure made in 1990.