TAIPEI (TVBS News) — The Bureau of Labor Insurance, Ministry of Labor (BLI) has implemented a parental leave allowance scheme since July 2021, offering a 20 percent wage subsidy grant in an initiative to ease the economic pressures of working parents.
One year later, an amendment was included in the Employment Insurance Act, which saw both parents entitled to claim allowance.
As soon as the amendment took effect, the percentage of male claims settled reached 26 percent by the end of July this year, with the BLI disbursing a total of NT$101.4 billion in just the first nine months.
The parental leave allowance corresponds to 60% of the insured person's average monthly insurance salary six months before the start of the leave, plus the additional wage subsidy grant. As a result, parents can receive an amount equaling 80 percent of their monthly insurance salary.
Since the BLI released the subsidy grant nationwide, the number of applicants tripled, with eight thousand benefited families on record last year, five times greater than when the scheme was initially launched in 2009.
