Make Good Use of Social Welfare Resources, and Happiness Will Accompany You for Your Whole Life.
- 地點:Taiwan
- 發布日期:
- 單位:National Immigration Agency, Ministry of the Interior
- 更新日期:2020/07/22
- 點閱次數:277
For new immigrants who come to Taiwan alone, it is inevitable to feel nervous and anxious while facing foreign languages, culture, and lifestyle. When they have emergencies, their rights are affected due to their being in the unknown environment and unfamiliar with relevant welfare and laws. To improve this situation, the government recently starts many programs, such as counseling sessions for life adjustment, setting up service centers, counseling hotlines for multiple languages, providing various social welfare and subsidies, and so on, to assist new immigrants in adjusting themselves to lifestyles in Taiwan. The following includes some social welfare information for new immigrants for you to understand and approach a variety of means for counseling and solving all problems.
The government provides sufficient social welfare resources, including healthcare, social insurance, welfare services, and social assistance, which offers timely assistance when new immigrants face hardship in lives.
1. Healthcare: Everyone enjoys complete medical resources to improve physical and mental health.
Healthcare includes general health checks, free vaccination, prevention and treatment of epidemic diseases, prenatal checkups for pregnant women, reproductive care, and long-term care. Having influenza vaccines annually is the most effective way to prevent seasonal influenza. Starting from October 1, 2017, Government provides free influenza vaccines for the following individuals: 6-month-old to 18-year-old infants and students, adults over 50 years old, pregnant women, patients with chronic diseases, patients with rare diseases and major injuries, residents and personnel of senior care centers, poultry operators, medical and health personnel, parents of infants under 6-month-old, nursery staff in kindergartens, and professionals in daycare centers. For more information, please visit the official website of “2017 Influenza Vaccination Program.”
In order to take care of pregnant new immigrant women, the government provides various resources, including prenatal checkups that are not insured in health care, maternity assistance, childbirth benefits and maternity benefits, maternity counseling hotlines, printed maternal health booklet and child health booklet in multiple languages, and so on. For more information, please visit the official website of “No Worries for Childbirth, Government Providing Supportive Benefits” and search articles under Topics.
2. Social Insurance: To protect new immigrants’ lives, those who stay for more than 6 months are required to join National Health Insurance.
Social insurance is an insurance system enacted by the nation and requiring insured people to join. Social insurance includes labor insurance, farmer health insurance, National Pension Insurance, and National Health Insurance. With the social insurance, people can be protected when suffering from diseases, aging, and death so as not to make lives fall into hardship.
National Health Insurance is the most important social insurance. When we are sick, we only have to pay a registration fee to clinics without paying a huge amount of treatment fee, which lessens many people’s financial burden. New immigrants who have a residence permit and stayed in Taiwan for 6 months or left Taiwan once less than 30 days should join National Health Insurance. However, if new immigrants are employed by a particular employer, they should join National Health Insurance upon the day they are hired without being restricted by the 6-month regulation. For more information, visit our website and search under “National Health Insurance Relevant Regulations.”
How can new immigrants who are not employed join National Health Insurance? If they have family in Taiwan, they can join National Health Insurance through the insured unit of their spouse or immediate family. If they do not have any family in Taiwan, they can apply for National Health Insurance at the local offices of their residence place.
3. Benefit Services: The government establishes “Life Counseling Service Hotline for Foreigners in Taiwan 0800-024-111” and New Immigrant Family Service Center to provide new immigrants with life adjustment counseling services.
In order to address the problems of new immigrants’ communication barriers, National Immigration Agency establishes “Life Counseling Service Hotline for Foreigners in Taiwan 0800-024-111” to provide toll-free counseling services in 7 languages, including Mandarin Chinese, English, Japanese, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Thai, and Cambodian. Services include visa, residence, work, education and culture, tax service, health insurance, transportation, employment services, health care, personal safety, child rearing, transportation information, welfare services, legal information, interpretation services, family relations, and other daily life information. For more information, visit our website and search under “Life Counseling Service Hotline for Foreigners in Taiwan.”
Service Hours:
(1) Mandarin Chinese, English, Japanese: 24 hours, 365 days
(2) Vietnamese: Monday to Friday (excluding national holidays and other off days) 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
(3) Indonesian, Thai, and Cambodian: Monday to Friday (excluding national holidays and other off days) 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Local governments establish new immigrant family service centers to provide new immigrants with local counseling services, including assistance in marriage and family relations, care visits, financial and employment assistance, parent-child relationship service, welfare counseling, various courses and seminars, and multicultural activities. New immigrants can receive much support from family service centers or community service stations and interact with their fellows from the same county as them to exchange life experiences. Visit our website and search “National New Immigrant Family Service Center” for contact information about local family service centers.
4. Social Assistance: Assist disadvantaged families and provide them with life, medical, emergency assistance to support their basic needs.
Social assistance is mainly for helping disadvantaged families and families in special conditions, subsidizing children’s living and schooling costs, and assisting in disaster relief or medical care. Particularly, providing assistance for families in special conditions is extremely helpful for preventing them from life crises. If new immigrants have not received ID card yet, they can apply for “Assistance for Pre-Registered Foreign Spouses in Special Conditions,” which covers life emergency assistance, subsidized living costs for children, subsidized educational costs for children, subsidized medical treatment, subsidized child day care service, and subsidized legal aid. When suffering from financial or living predicaments, new immigrants who are qualified can seek help at the social bureau of local governments or local offices of their residence. Visit the website of “Social and Family Affairs Administration, Ministry of Health and Welfare” to find out application qualification.
5. Ministry of Health and Welfare establishes “Welfare Counseling Hotline 1957” to provide counseling services for a variety of social welfare.
The service of Welfare Counseling 1957 includes free emergency assistance, social assistance, benefits for seniors, benefits for people with disabilities, child welfare, assistance for families in special conditions, National Pension Insurance, and various social welfare counseling and referral services. Service time is daily 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Call toll-free hotline 1957 for any welfare needs.
In addition to social welfare resources provided by governments, private organizations also contribute a lot to provide a variety of assistance to help new immigrants adjust themselves to lives in Taiwan as soon as possible. When they suffer from financial or living predicaments, they can seek assistance that can accompany them through the hardship.
References：
Living in Taiwan Brochure
2016-2017 Handbook of Taiwan’s National Health Insurance
Family Support Q &A