Analysis of the Social Welfare Requirements of Physically and Mentally Disabled Women in Taiwan-Fuchien Area

March 2001

Given the concern about the requirements of the living and the welfare of physically and mentally disabled women, this article presents the analyses on the results of the Survey of Requirements of the Living of Physically and Mentally Disabled Women conducted by the Ministry in 2000, and more particularly, on the backgrounds, living condition and requirements of living, with a view to identify the welfare measures physically and mentally disable women hope the government will give priority to and the kinds of physically and mentally disabled women with a particular background most eager for welfare. The results of the analyses are presented for the reference of the woman members of the society and the general public.

I. Backgrounds

1. Physically and mentally disabled women were mostly likely (38%) to be at an advanced age (over 65), and up to 37% of them were illiterate.

The results of the Survey indicate that there were a total of 258,187 physically and mentally disabled women. The biggest age group consisted of women over 65, and they totaled to 37.6% of the number of physically and mentally disabled women. As regards their education, they were most likely to be illiterate (37.1%) or just the graduates of a primary school or a junior high school (27.6%). As regards their marital status, they were mostly likely to be married or in a cohabitation relationship (45.3%), while 26.6% of them were single and 24.8% of them were widows.

2. Physically and mentally disabled women were mostly likely (40%) to have limbs handicapped that most often (46%) occurred when they were between 15 and 24. The limbs handicapped were mainly caused by diseases.

As regards the category of disabilities, limbs handicapped ranked the first (39.6%), mentally handicapped ranked the second (11.0%), and multi- handicapped ranked the third (10.6%). As regards the grade of disabilities, more than 20% of them belong to one of the four grades of disabilities. As regards the cause of disabilities, diseases ranked the first (63.0%), congenital factors (born to be disabled) ranked the second (18.9%), and the disabilities occurred most often when women at an age between 15 and 24 (45.7%) or at an age between 0 and 14 (27.7%).

II. Living Condition

1. About 92% of physically and mentally disabled women stayed at home, while 3% lived alone. About 47% of them were in poor health or in very poor health.

As regards living condition, about 92% of physically and mentally disabled women stayed at home, 2% of them stayed in public home care or medicare institutions, and 6% in private home care or medicare institutions. About 3.1% of them lived alone. As regards their opinion about their health, “average” ranked the first (42.7%), “poor” ranked the second (33.5%), while 13.4% of them believed that they were in “very poor” health.

2. About 45% of them said that their family was in deficit, while another 45% said that their family balanced their budgets.

As regards finances, only 7.9% of physically and mentally disabled women were breadwinners, 45.3% of them said that their family balanced their budgets, 45.2% of them said that the amount of money their family spent is greater than the amount their family received, but only 9.5% of them said that the amount of money their family received is greater than the amount their family spent and their family had savings. In other words, the families of most of physically and mentally disabled women had either a deficit or a balanced budget. As regards employment, although 12.5% of physically and mentally disabled women worked, 78.9% of them did not work, that is, they were studying or preparing to pursue further education, doing housework, or retired (under 65), severely disable and thus unable to work or at an advanced age (over 65).

III. Welfare Requirements

1. As regards welfare measures, physically and mentally disabled women believed that the government should give priority to living subsidy, elderly accommodation and the establishment of the national pension system.

As regards the welfare measures to which physically and mentally disabled women believed that the government should give priority, living subsidy ranked the first (with an importance degree of 66.7), elderly accommodation ranked the second (with an importance degree of 43.4), followed by the establishment of the national pension system (with an importance degree of 18.6), and, finally, ensuring a reasonable minimum wage for physically and mentally disabled women who are capable of working (with an importance degree of 14.3). It shows that physically and mentally disabled women hoped that the competent authorities of the government would give priority to the financial assistance they need. It also indicates that, in the face of the advent of an aging society, it is important for the government to speed up the planning of the measures relevant to elderly accommodation and the national pension system so as to meet the need of physically and mentally disabled citizens.

2. Most of physically and mentally disabled women who believed that the government should give priority to living subsidy were at an advanced age, with little education, chronic psychopath patients, in deficit and poor in health.

A total of 146,303 physically and mentally disable women believed that the government should give priority to living subsidy. An analysis of their backgrounds indicated that the older and less educated they were, the more likely they believed that the government should give priority to living subsidy. The analysis also revealed a phenomenon that those physically and mentally disabled women who were divorced, separated, chronic psychopath, vision handicapped or were over 65 when they acquired the disabilities were more likely to believe that the government should give priority to living subsidy.

An analysis of their living condition indicated that those physically and mentally disabled women who lived alone or were in deficit, person not in the labor force, poor in health or very poor in health were more likely to believe that the government should give priority to living subsidy.