Research, Development and Evaluation Commission

The RDEC(Research, Development, and Evaluation Commission) of Taipei City Government, has commissioned the TTR(Taiwan Trend Research) to conduct the phone polls on two municipal issues including Covid-19 economic relief package, and senior welfare and childcare. The survey results are summarized as follows:

The Working Hours of Employees Decreased but Working From Home has Increased Significantly During the Pandemic

Among the 1,115 respondents, about 32% believed that the epidemic had an impact on their work, but 26% thought there’s no impact. Increased by 13 percentage from the previous survey, 18% of the respondents’ working hours have decreased based on the poll conducted on January 2021. According to the 583 respondents’ poll opinions, 56% of them have become fully or partly working at home due to the epidemic. This is an increase of 37% compared with the previous survey. Meanwhile, the other 41% remain the same working way.

Based on the opinions of 653 respondents who received income in the past three months, 45% of them had reduced income or welfare in the past year due to the epidemic, and 54% of them were feeling no impact. Increased by 16 percentage, 42% of the respondents have reduced income compared to the previous survey. Cross tabulation analysis shows that employers or self-employed workers, accommodation and catering industries, professional, scientific, and technical service industries, etc., have a relatively high percentage of income reduction.

36% of all interviewees have inquired about government relief packages in the past three months, and 64% did not; 28% think they need financial aid from the government, and 71% don’t. The poll shows that employers or self-employed citizens, wholesale and retail industries, accommodation and catering industries, support services, and other service industries expressing higher needs of the relief package. Nevertheless, about 46% indicated that they or people they know need financial aid from the government due to the epidemic.  Between 5% and 19%, the opinions are focus on salary subsidies, unemployment subsidies, job opportunities, cash/living subsidies, and business loss subsidies. 

In terms of the city’s short-term relief packages, 42% have heard of them and 57% have not. Among the 472 people who have heard of them, 43% are satisfied with the relevant measures, 17% are dissatisfied, and 38% have no comments or don’t know that.

Overall, 60% of respondents are satisfied with the city’s performance in the prevention of COVID-19, and 30% are dissatisfied. The percentage of satisfaction increased by 9% compared with the previous survey conducted in June 2021.

79% Satisfied with the Taipei Elderly Card Policy

Among all 1,101 interviewees, 32% are satisfied with the welfare work for the elderly in this city, 21% are dissatisfied, and their satisfaction rate has increased by 4% compared with the previous survey conducted in May 2017. However, 47% of respondents have no comments or express they don’t know. Among the 348 satisfied interviewees, the satisfaction items mainly consist of elderly subsidies for car venues, long-term care services, medical subsidies, and health promotion social participation activities, and the proportion is between 10% and 28% in total. Nevertheless, among the 236 dissatisfied respondents (checked, no prompt), the first three dissatisfied items were the deletion of the Double Ninth Festival cash gift, no old-age pension, and long-term care services. The proportions ranged from 10% to 30%.

For the elderly care services that the government should prioritize, medical assistance (42%), home services (38%), and daycare (36%) top the three options, compared with the previous two surveys conducted in May 2019 and November 2017, the medical-related subsidies or care are the services for the elderly that the public believes the government should provide in priority.

For citizens 65 years old or older (indigenous people over 55 years old), there is a free 480 points (1 point/TWD ) monthly card for the elders. Seventy-nine percent of the respondents are satisfied, and 12 percent are dissatisfied.

Regarding the awareness of senior welfare, Elder-Friendly Hours in the sports center and the annual free medical examination are 34% and 50%, and the awareness of actual service users over the age of 65 is higher than that of other age groups (50% and 60%). In the related services to prevent the loss of elderly with dementia, the degree of awareness in order below:  "Applying for Elderly Lost Prevention Bracelet (Bracelet of Love)" (30%), "Fingerprint File for the Elderly with Dementia" (13%), and "Personal GPS locator subsidy” (7%). However, 64% of the people said they didn’t know.

As for childcare-related issues, 10% know that Taipei City has designated Temporary Childcare Services for children, while 90% don’t know, and if there are children under the age of 6 in the family, the ratio reaches 21%. In regard to extending the hours of Temporary Childcare Services (extended to 8 pm on weekdays, and increased from 9 am to 5 pm on weekends), 84% of the people agree. For the 167 people with children under 6 in their families, the needs of Night Temporary Childcare Services are only 2%, and 97% have no need. We further asked the reason why they don’t need it, 38% can full-time take care of their children, followed by taking care of themselves while working(28%). Only 28% expressing relatives and friends will give assistance.

Opinion Poll Background Information

These two pieces of research were conducted during the weekday evenings and weekend afternoons from August 23rd, 2021 to August 28th, 2021, respondents were randomly selected and reached on residential landline numbers registered in Taipei City. Overall, 1,115 and 1,101 Taipei citizens above the age of 18 were successfully interviewed, while 1,615 and 1,492 rejected the interview; and under a 95% confidence interval, the margin of sampling errors is under ±2.93%. The survey method uses Taipei City’s residential telephone as the parent body, a systematic sample survey with two-digit mantissa random substitution telephones, and weights the samples with gender, age, and place of household registration as weighting variables.