COST OF LIVING/Cabinet plans rent subsidies for college students living in dorms

Taipei, Nov. 17 (CNA) Premier Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) has agreed to provide rent subsidies to college students who live in school dorms from February 2024, the Executive Yuan said Friday.

However, the expanded rent subsidy plan is pending official approval from the Executive Yuan.

Beginning in February next year, college students living in dorms will also be eligible for a basic rent subsidy of NT$5,000 a semester, with this figure rising to NT$7,000 for those from low-income and lower middle-income families, the Cabinet said.

Speaking with reporters, Chu Chun-chang (朱俊彰), head of the Department of Higher Education under the Ministry of Education, said that expanding the rent subsidy program to an estimated 275,000 students living in dorms is expected to cost the taxpayers around NT$2.8 billion a year.

Chu said college students will see their dorm rents deducted automatically under the expanded subsidy program when they register for the second semester of the 2023-2024 academic year.

The rent subsidies for dorm rents of college students could become a regular program into which the Ministry of the Interior will inject funds from its housing fund.

Currently, newly wedded couples, families with underage children, economically disadvantaged households and single adults under 40 can apply for rent subsidies ranging from NT$2,000 to NT$8,000, depending on location, under the Cabinet's NT$30 billion rent subsidy program, which started in 2022 and will run through 2025, according to the Cabinet.