The Abolishment and Existence of the Insured Person Hardship Loan on the Labor Insurance in Taiwan

• Main Authors: chi-ling chang, 張琦玲
• Other Authors: none
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2009
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/10802798075834338402

碩士 === 中原大學 === 財經法律研究所 === 97 === The global and domestic economic downturn in the 2001s caused unemployment rates to be on the rise; as a result, many labors face financial difficulties. In reference to the commercial insurance mechanism, the objective of labor insurance is to provide individual hardship loan to those who are in need. Therefore, insured persons of the labor insurance may apply for old-age benefits in advance, which will be deducted from insurance benefits later on.In 2003, Subparagraph (4), Paragraph 1 of Article 67 of the amended Labor Insurance Act stipulated that the labor insurance fund may be put towards loans for insured persons. Since 2003, the government started promoting hardship loans for insured persons under the labor insurance program. Until January 2009, there are 580,000 applicants to the program, with a total of NT$63,800 million loans approved. However, around 100,000 applicants failed to submit principle and interest payments in time, and the amount of deficiency reached NT$9,500 million, equivalent to a deficiency ratio around 18.61%. In addition, the proviso of Paragraph 1 of Article 29 of the Labor Insurance Act stipulated that an insured person who has not repaid interests on aloan shall have the amount deducted form insurance benefits claimed by the insured person or other beneficiaries. As a result, there are quite a lot of applicants to he hardship loans under thelabor insurance program. Could we accomplish policy objectives of assisting those temporarily in need? Since the deficiency ratio of hardship loans under the labor insurance program is relatively high, if unpaid amounts are deducted from insurance benefits claimed by the insurance person in the future, would labors be financially secured in case of the occurrence of a contingency covered by the insurance? Could insurance benefits not yet repaid be fully deducted from insurance benefits? The paper dicusses the function and feature of the labor insurance fund and labor pension fund, distinguishes the advantages and disadvantages of different hardship loans under the labor pension fund, and analyzes how hardship loan programs affect the security for entire or individual retired labors. The paper studies potential obstacles in practice or law applications when individual hardship loans are under a shared labor insurance fund; I also study the accumulation fund system in Singapore and 401(K) plan in the United States as references to hardship loans. Lastly, I propose my conclusion, policy suggestions and recommended law amendments regards to hardship loans under the labor insurance fund and the labor pension fund.