Has anyone here received a subsidy payment for having a kid in Taiwan, under a foreign parent’s name? The payment varies from county to county.
My wife (Taiwanese) wasn’t eligible because she had lived in Taichung less than a year when we applied. When we tried to apply in my name, they said I had to have a local Taiwanese ID - ARC’s weren’t eligible. That seemed odd. Anyone I can complain to? 
[quote=“Adam_CLO”]Has anyone here received a subsidy payment for having a kid in Taiwan, under a foreign parent’s name? The payment varies from county to county.
My wife (Taiwanese) wasn’t eligible because she had lived in Taichung less than a year when we applied. When we tried to apply in my name, they said I had to have a local Taiwanese ID - ARC’s weren’t eligible. That seemed odd. Anyone I can complain to? [/quote]
President Ma.
[quote=“Adam_CLO”]Has anyone here received a subsidy payment for having a kid in Taiwan, under a foreign parent’s name? The payment varies from county to county.
My wife (Taiwanese) wasn’t eligible because she had lived in Taichung less than a year when we applied. When we tried to apply in my name, they said I had to have a local Taiwanese ID - ARC’s weren’t eligible. That seemed odd. Anyone I can complain to? [/quote]
Yes we got the birth subsidy from Miaoli county, thru the wifes Hukou, but she’s Taiwanese. Goes thru the Hukou office I think. There might be other subsidies now also, not sure.
Back in 2004, when my son was born, we got NT$3,000 from the township where my wife (Taiwanese) and I were registered. Seemed very straightforward.
Is this child subsidy a one-time thing or is it a monthly “allowance?”
Would be interesting to know how much it is in Taiwan and if it’s ongoing like it is in some other countries. For example in Canada there are two programs (one until the kids are 18 and until they are 5 for the other). For having 3 kids, I receive about 90,000NT a year here in my home country from these two national programs. Will decrease next year when one kid reaches 18. The other program will end when our toddler reaches 5.
Because I have a relatively high salary (somewhat close to 6 figures), this 90,000 NT or 3000CDN amount is peanuts compared with poorer individuals. For example, a person only making $20,000 CDN could get over $3200 CDN a year per kid for a child tax benefit (until the baby is 18 years old) and a universal child tax benefit of $1200 per year per kid (until it reaches 5). For a family of three, that’s like $10,000 CDN a year in extra money for doing nothing! This does not include the usual tax deductions you can make for having kids.
You do pay for it in higher taxes though, so Taiwan’s low taxes are preferable! 
It varies from county to county, I think Xinzhu, Taipei and Taoyuan are among the most generous, as they would like people to register their Hukou and in that manner gain bigger city status and a bigger allocation of the national budget. The benefit is given for the first two or three years, something like 10,000-30,000 NTD in total. Now there is also a private kindergarten allowance and of couse there are publically funded kindergartens but quality is not great. In reality it’s peanuts. Taiwan doesn’t help procreation and child rearing enough which is fairly obvious from the birth rate. At the same time, things are pretty cheap here in general, taxes are low and the medical benefits are another form of childrens allowance.
But yes, more benefits for children would be very welcome. Parents need more holidays and work hours need to be shortened too.
I am tegistered in hsinchu, so when my baby girl and wife was released from the clinic, i went down to have the money handed to me. 15000, Didnt apply for the 2500 a month for 48 months, but will do as soon as i am able to. Taipei county gets the same amount, taipei city gets it for 
5 years.
I have to disagree with this statement. In my experience, and from talking to other parents whose children are in public kindergartens, the quality of education received at public kindergarten can be very good. Personally, I have been very satisfied with the education both of my children received at the two kindergartens they attended/are attending.
Okay not all of them are the same … I will see in the future myself.
Here in Taichung parents get 10.000 NTD (one-time thing) including a special announcement and a round of applause (I hate it) from the staff. Plus, we get 2500 NTD per month. It is going on my account but my wife was the main applicant. Don*t know how this money is called - we get it cause one of us is not working full-time and officially dedicates his time for the child.
http://www.society.taichung.gov.tw/news/index-1.asp?Parser=9%2C4%2C19%2C%2C%2C%2C280
this website (in Chinese) provides more info
My boy got a NT$5,000 a semester payment for the last two semesters of his kindergarten. He went to a private kindergarten and they informed me that I could claim the money. It was good as I just put it towards the semester registration fee. All I had to do was to show a household registration with his name on and as I have him listed on his babysitter’s household registration as I don’t have one and I am divorced so I removed him from the in-law’s household registration, and this was sufficient. I only have an ARC through my work and I am listed on the babysitter’s household registration as my boy’s father.
Don’t know if there are other Family Benefits I can claim though, like I could if in Australia. It would be good though as his TW mom doesn’t contribute anything.
Just lodged my tax again and same as always, I only needed to show his passport and say he was my son to claim him as a dependant.
For my son, who just turned 2 in January, we received $3000 a month to put toward paying his licensed nanny up until his second birthday, when the payments stop because a child can legally enroll in a kindy. As far as I know, there are no such subsidies for private kindies in Xinbei city, but who knows? Maybe I didn’t get the memo, which is often the case.
For my daughter, who just turned three weeks old today, we’re getting a one-time $20000 payment from the Xinbei city government, in addition to the $3000 a month childcare subsidy. From what I understand, that $3000 a month childcare subsidy is only available for households with a declared annual income of less than $1,500,000.
Because I haven’t seen it posted here yet, I’ll also mention our rental subsidy that we get from the government every month. I don’t know if it’s the local or national government that does this, but my wife’s co-worker suggested we apply for this thing, and somehow we got it. Every month the government puts $3600 a month into my wife’s bank account to help pay our rent. We started getting this subsidy about a year ago and it’ll keep coming for at least another two years, at which time we’ll need to re-apply.
Has anyone gotten the subsidy where neither parent is Taiwanese? (i.e., just ARCs)
I was visiting childcare centers and one offered to help me apply for the subsidy. It’s not likely to come through, but I figure it’s worth a shot. But they’re asking me to give them a copy of our hukou. I have no idea what that is or where to get one… can foreigners get a hukou?
Thanks!
No. If both parents are foreigners, cannot get it. Childcare centers often don’t know that.