As advised in Notice No. Lao-Bao-2-1010140557 issued by the Council of Labor Affairs, Executive Yuan, on 26 December 2012, Article 30 of the Labor Insurance Act had been revised under President's Order dated 19 December 2012. The following is a discussion on the legal implications of extending benefit expiry from 2 years to 5 years:
- For laws that explicitly state the effectiveness of the announcement date, Article 13 of the Central Regulation Standard Act specifically requires that such laws take effect only from the 3rd day after announcement. Therefore, the true effective date of the revised regulation was 21 December 2012.
- Benefit claims that arise after the effective date of the revision shall be treated according to the revised terms and be vested with an expiry term of 5 years. The legal implications for benefit claims that arose before the revision took effect are explained below:
(1) For benefits which no claims have been made past the 2-year expiry term before the revisions took effect or claims that have been rejected by the Insurer, the right to claim such benefits remains unavailable because of the non-retroactivity principle.
(2) For ongoing administrative remedies involving the Insurer's denial to pay benefits that were past the 2-year expiry term, the Insurer shall not withdraw or change its existing treatment of such cases, but will instead allow the appeal to reach its final decision.
(3) For benefits in which the right to claim have yet to pass the 2-year expiry term at the time the above revisions took effect, the claimer shall be entitled to the 5-year expiry granted under the revised law, which begins from the date the benefit first became available.