On the first day of 2022, Taichung City launched the new birth allowance policy, where the birth allowance has been increased from NT$10,000 per baby to NT$20,000 per baby starting from January 1. Today (the 1st), Mayor Lu Shiow-yen paid a special visit to postpartum women and their family at the hospital. During her visit, she not only expressed her care for New Year babies and their mothers’ physical health, but also distributed red envelopes to them, blessing that every New Baby would grow up healthily and safely, and announced the good news of doubling the birth allowance starting this year.

“Upgrade the Taichung’s happiness in 2022!” Mayor Lu expressed that no change was made to Taichung’s birth allowance rate over the last 10 years and, to encourage young families to give birth to and raise children, Taichung City Government had doubled the birth allowance to NT$20,000 per child starting from this year. Apart from increasing the birth allowance, Taichung City Government also reduced the monthly fee of local community-based public child care centers from NT$10,000 to NT$7,000. after deducting the child care subsidy from the nominal amount, the parents will only need to pay NT$3,000 per child each month. Besides, Taichung City Government has been proactive in promoting the multiplication plan for public child care facilities: It is anticipated that the City will increase its public child care centers from 5 to 18 and then to 50 (ten times more) at the end of next year. By offering parents the opportunity of sending their children to a public child care facility, this plan can lessen their economic burdens.

Mayor Lu says that Taichung has around 15,000 to 20,000 newborns per year and the relevant budget is rather sizable. This is the reason that Taichung City Government has doubled the birth allowance first to increase the childbirth rate. Later, the City Government plans to increase its annual revenue and, if the conditions allow, it will further optimize the system by increasing the birth allowance for families with more children.

Today at 12:02 am, Mr. Wu’s wife delivered a New Year baby at China Medical University Hospital and Mayor Lu paid a special visit to Mr. Wu at the hospital. Mayor Lu not only congratulated him and sent them best wishes in a red envelope, but also, after ensuring that all pandemic prevention measures have been taken, looked at the lovely faces of sleeping babies through the nursery room window. Mayor Lu said that Mr. Wu’s baby was the firstborn and it was her aspiration that Mr. and Mrs. Wu would “do their best to have two and even three children”. Mr. Wu’s baby is not only a New Year baby, but also a “baby of peace and happiness” as described by Mayor Lu because Wu’s family comes from Taiping (literally means “peace”) District. Mayor Lu further expressed her wish that all babies who were becoming future masters of the country would grow up healthily and safely.

Mr. Wu expressed that the New Year baby who was born today was his first child and was a little boy who weighed 3,005 g. He said that he was very happy with the arrival of the baby and that they planned to have three children. Mr. Wu also joked that his wife’s due date was January 13 and then had early contraction pain. In the beginning, he thought that they would receive only NT$10,000, and luckily the child was clever enough to stay in his mom’s womb until 2 past 12 am. He said that he was delighted to have a New Year baby and delivered his thanks to Mayor Lu and Taichung City Government for increasing the birth allowance and encouraging young families to have more children.

The Social Affairs Bureau of Taichung City Government expressed that the City Government not only promoted the multiplication plan for public child care, public kindergarten, and parent-child facilities but also launched the Taichung Melody Program to construct inclusive playgrounds and create an even more friendly environment for raising children. To assist new parents, the City Government also offers in-home parental guidance services to new parents (six times per year). Through the services, the parents will receive child care consultations (ex., “how to bathe a newborn”, “how to make solid food” and “how to communicate with newborns”) to support them and lessen their frustration and pressure in their roles as parents.

The Social Affairs Bureau explained that the new birth allowance policy would be applicable to babies born on or after January 1, 2022. However, at least one of the newborns’ parents must be a citizen of Taichung City for more than 180 days and the newborns must be registered as a citizen of Taichung City. The eligible parent must apply for the birth allowance with his or her personal ID card and seal, and the application must be submitted to the newborn’s Household Registration Office in Taichung within six months after the delivery thereof. If the application is made after the prescribed period, it is deemed that the parent(s) has given up the allowance.

In addition, the Taichung City Government also launched a matching platform for home-based postpartum confinement services. The platform allows professionals from the industry to provide comprehensive one-to-one services that help to take care of the mother and newborn. Apart from assisting the parents in raising children by increasing the birth allowance, the City Government also offers child care allowance (from NT$3,500 per month) or child care subsidy (if the child is sent to a nursery facility) to families with an individual income tax rate of less than 20%. By implementing the affordable child care policy, Taichung City Government has managed to reduce a family’s child care expense to 8.8% of the household disposable income on average. Among the six municipalities, parents from Taichung City bear the least amount of child care expense.

The Civil Affairs Bureau of Taichung City Government indicated that the outbreak of pandemic in recent years not only changed people’s lifestyles, but also resulted in a decrease in birth and marriage rates. To increase birth and marriage rates, the City Government has launched various social welfare policies, such as meetup events for singles, joint wedding, wedding wall at household registration offices, marriage gifts and birth allowance, to encourage people to “get married, be willing to give birth, and be capable to raise children”.

The Health Bureau pointed out that, to encourage and support families with children, the Taichung City Government had allocated an additional budget to subsidize its citizens to conduct post-marriage and pre-pregnancy health checks; and low-income and medium-low income households are subsidized to conduct maternal Down's syndrome screening. In addition, to comply with the Central Government’s policy, the Taichung City Government also subsidizes pregnant women to receive prenatal check-ups (14 times), amniocentesis (for pregnant women above a certain age), genetic disease screening, newborn screening, and preventive children healthcare services. It is the City Government’s aspiration that these measures will help all citizens of Taichung to plan their marriage lives start families as early as possible.

To ensure the health and safety of both the mother and the baby, the Health Bureau of Taichung City Government also reminded pregnant women to comply with the five health rules, including taking prenatal check-ups on time; knowing about premature birth signs; taking antenatal care seriously; being able to identify dangerous pregnancy; and being aware of pre-delivery signs. To find out more about newborn or general child care related information, you can search for Health Bureau’s ID (@taichung_health) in LINE APP to interact with the Smart Child Care Helper provided by Taichung City.

Mayor Lu, Director of Health Bureau Tseng Tzu-chan, Director of Social Affairs Bureau Peng Huai-chen, Superintendent of China Medical University Hospital Cho Der-yang, and Taichung City Councilor Lo Ting-wei paid a visit to New Year babies at the hospital today.