Issue Act has no provisions on the collection of the funds, so that they are vulnerable to financial difficulties, being crowded out by other projects, and/or subject to annual major project exits that interrupt or reduce services. The fact that it is not an official budget allocation makes it difficult to guarantee support services for independent living, and a reliable, stable source of funding is unlikely to occur. 85. After reviewing the data provided by the MOHW on support services for independent living, the NHRC noted the following problems: (1) From 2015 to 2019, the number of people to whom support services for independent living were provided increased annually but at a slow rate (only 278 over the four-year period). (2) Although the MOHW introduced peer-supported digital courses and independent living resource platforms in 2010, the number of peer counselors who provided support services for independent living, the number of times that such services were used, and the number of people who used such services did not increase but rather fluctuated between 2015 and 2019. Additionally, some cities and counties had only 0–3 peer counselors.66 Despite launching training courses and planning a peer support service reference manual for local governments to refer to over the past two years, the MOHW did not actively calculate or have a clear understanding of the supply of and demand for resources and service capacity in the various cities and counties. As a result, it was unable to set project schedules and oversee local governments effectively. In the end, it allowed local governments to develop their own independent living plans. (3) Personal assistant services provided to persons with disabilities are determined by the social affairs, labor affairs, and education departments. These departments have varying subsidy standards, causing the services provided to persons with disabilities to be fragmentary and discontinuous. However, according to the explanations provided by the MOHW, 67 the various 66 67 New Taipei City, Taoyuan City, Taichung City, Nantou County, Penghu County, Keelung City, and Kinmen County each had 1–3 peer counselors, while Yilan County, Taitung County, and Lienchiang County had no peer counselors. In the second response letter submitted by the MOHW to the NHRC, the MOHW stated that because the service needs of persons with disabilities change according to their stage in life (e.g., they may be 57

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