ABSTRACT
Introduction On July 17, 2000, the Taipei City Government launched an anti-poverty program, Taipei Family Development Accounts (TFDAs), to provide matched saving accounts for low-income families. Different from the traditional public-assistance system that delivered welfare provisions mainly through income-based financial transfers, TFDAs were the first anti-poverty initiative developed not only to remove disincentives to save, but also to help low-income families achieve economic self-sufficiency by accumulating assets. At the institutional level, the policy innovation was even more revolutionary – it was the first public service program, funded through collaboration between the public and private sectors, to help the poor own assets. The establishment of TFDAs has broadened the principles of public assistance for the poor in Taiwan from remedial/curative measures to preventive/proactive measures. According to Midgley (1999), in redistributive social welfare, building assets for the poor is one of the most progressive ways to integrate low-income families into the economic mainstream.
