TAIPEI (TVBS News) — Taiwan's relaxed foreign caregiver hiring rules have generated 1,450 applications in just over two weeks, Labor Minister Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) confirmed Wednesday (Aug. 20). The Ministry of Labor (勞動部) policy change took effect Aug. 1, allowing elderly individuals over 80 or cancer patients aged 70 to 79 in stage two or beyond to hire foreign home caregivers without medical institution assessments. The streamlined process eliminates the previous requirement for Barthel scale evaluations, which measured patients' functional independence levels.
Minister Hung spoke to reporters outside Taiwan's legislature's Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene Committee (衛環委員會), emphasizing the dramatic surge in demand. The second week's application numbers doubled those of the first week, demonstrating rapidly increasing interest in the program. The Ministry of Labor plans to evaluate additional supporting measures based on future application volumes, Hung indicated.
Taiwan's parliament, the Legislative Yuan (立法院), approved the amendment to Article 46 of the Employment Service Act (就業服務法) last year, establishing the legal foundation for these changes. Ministry officials project that up to 100,000 people could eventually apply for home caregivers under the revised legislation. Initial concerns about wage competition or caregiver preferences for less severely ill patients have not emerged during the policy's early implementation weeks. ◼