Parental Leave Allowance Available to Either the Mother or Father, to Care for Children without Worries

Dual-income families are very common in today's society. In order to help parents that have a newborn baby at home alleviate their financial pressure while on leave without pay, address the difficulties associated with simultaneously working and taking care of children, and at the same time encourage fathers to participate in taking care of their children, the Taiwan government started the Employment Insurance Parental Leave Allowance in May of 2009. The allowance provides subsidies to employees for part of the loss that occurs during unpaid parental leave. Therefore, as long as a parent from a dual income family has been insured for more than a year and the child is under the age of three, in accordance with the Act of Gender Equality in Employment, parents can apply for parental leave allowance if they apply for unpaid parental leave from their employer. According to the Bureau of Labor Insurance (hereinafter referred to as BLI), from the implementation of the allowance to the end of July 2016, more than 420,000 persons benefited from the program. Male applicants increased from a little more than 4,000 to over 71,000, demonstrating that many male employees are willing to share the responsibility of child care.
The parental leave allowance is calculated and provided on a monthly basis, based on 60% of the insured person's average monthly insurance salary six months prior to the month the person went on unpaid parental leave. For each child, the parent can receive a maximum of six months' allowance. If both parents are eligible, they can apply for the parental leave allowance successively, as long as the period of allowance does not overlap. For each child, parents can receive a maximum of 12 months' allowance, offering both parents an opportunity to parent their child. The allowance is provided in monthly cycles. In order to provide the daily necessities for employees during unpaid parental leave, after the BLI receives the application, it will be reviewed and the bureau will give the allowance at the beginning of a cycle. Even parents who return to work early and were not on unpaid parental leave for the entire monthly cycle can receive the full allowance for the month.

Furthermore, the BLI seeks to provide more convenient services. Employees only have to fill out a Parental Leave Allowance Application Form, benefits receipt, and Continuance Insurance Enrollment Application Form to complete the application in one single process for the parental leave allowance and continuous insurance during unpaid parental leave. If employees check "agree to continue enrollment" on the application, they can continue their enrollment in the ordinary insurance of labor insurance and employment insurance during unpaid parental leave, and they can enjoy relevant guarantees and accumulate insurance periods. Moreover, payment of insurance premiums that were originally covered by the employer will not be required during the unpaid parental leave period, and if the employee chooses, the premium borne by the employee can be delayed for up to three years, lessening the burden of the insured during child care!