Taiwan’s social assistance work is based on the principle of “proactive care, respect for needs, and support for self-reliance”, and all sorts of social assistance measures have been launched pursuant to the Public Assistance Act. It aims at providing proper care for the poor and sick, the solitary and helpless, and those falling in emergent and difficult positions, helping people who are in low-income households and mid-to-low-income households but able to work to develop self-reliance and overcome poverty as soon as possible, maintaining basic living standards of the people, and mitigating the growth in income inequality. Statistics by the end of June 2014 showed that there were 146,946 low-income households and the low-income population totaled 354,337 in Taiwan, representing 1.76% and 1.51% of the total households and the national population of Taiwan, respectively; there were 106,054 mid-to-low-income households and the mid-to-low-income population totaled 326,466 in Taiwan, representing 1.27% and 1.40% of the total households and the national population of Taiwan, respectively. In accordance with Article 2 of the Public Assistance Act, the public assistance referred to in this Act is divided into living support, medical subsidies, and emergency and disaster aid. Currently, services offered for low-income households by all levels of governments include family subsidies for living, child subsidies for living, student subsidies for living, National Health Insurance premium subsidies, partial-liability medical expense subsidies, school and miscellaneous fees reduction and exemption for low-income students, nutritional subsidies for pregnant women and babies, educational subsidies, allowances for purchase or rent of public housing, residential stays, living allowances for the elderly, living subsidies for the disabled, etc. In addition, positive measures such as vocational training, employment services, business venture guidance and work relief are also offered to enhance the working ability of the low-income population, in order to facilitate their self-reliance and improve their living conditions. Moreover, efforts in such work as disaster aid, emergency relief, medical subsidies, and assistance for the homeless are also continuing to help people in emergent and difficult positions and satisfy their basic living needs. See attachments for further information: