老人福利法第41條保護安置費用償還之適用爭議

Senior Citizens Welfare Act Article 41: Disputes over the Application of Expense Mitigation or Exemption for Elderly Protection and Settlement

老人福利法第41 條規定老人因直系血親卑親屬對其有疏忽、虐待、遺棄等情事，致有生命、身體、健康或自由之危難時，地方主管機關得依老人申請或職權予以適當短期保護及安置，並通知老人之直系血親卑親屬償還費用。隨著2018 年3 月我國正式宣告邁入「高齡社會」，老人保護安置事件與日俱增，隨之而來的安置費用追償，在國家政策方向不明的情況下，衍生成為一個公法事件引發私法事件、相互糾結的議題，增加整體之社會成本，據此，衛生福利部保護服務司於2016 年訂定「直轄市、縣（市）政府先行支付老人保護安置費用案件追償作業原則」，以供作各地方政府訂定其內部作業規範之參考。
2020年5月29日修正並生效之老人福利法第41條，新增第5項：明定主管機關應邀集專家學者及民間團體代表，進行減輕或免除費用之審查事宜。老人保護及安置費用的追償，涉及政府所得重分配的合理性、財政紀律、平等原則、人民財產權的保障……等課題。面對各種家庭生態，新法的審查委員會及減免機制若能妥適運用，是否可開闢出一條兼顧各種價值的蹊徑？正在考驗著各縣市「專家學者及民間團體代表」的智慧。

Article 41 of the Senior Citizens Welfare Act stipulates: “Shall the elder encounter difficulty or danger on lives, body, health or freedom due to inadvertence, mistreatment or desertion by their inferior lineal relatives by blood or contractual supporters, the municipal or city/county governments shall provide short-term protection and settlement, upon request or based on governmental rights … The expense needed can be sent to elders’ inferior lineal relatives by blood for a reimbursement.” In March, 2018, Taiwan entered the Old Age Society, the number of elderly protection incidents is increasing the reimbursement of protection settlement expense day by day, so is the protection and resettlement of the elderly. The reimbursement of protection settlement expense has raised several difficult issues due to the mutual entanglement of public law and private law, and the overall social cost cannot be underestimated. In view of this, the Department of Protection Service of the Ministry of Health and Welfare set out The Principle of Protection Settlement Expense Reimbursement for the Elderly in 2016 for reference by the local governments.
Article 41 of the Senior Citizens Welfare Act, as amended and effective on May 29, 2020, adds a new item 5: The competent authority shall invite experts, scholars, and representatives of civil society organizations to conduct an examination on the reduction or exemption of fees. The recovery of elderly protection and resettlement expenses is a very complicated human rights issue, which involves the reasonableness of the government’s income redistribution, financial discipline, the principle of equality, and the protection of people’s property rights. In the face of various family ecologies, the wisdom of experts and scholars from various counties and cities and representatives of civil society organizations is being tested to see whether the new law’s examination committee and fee waiver mechanism can, if properly applied, create a pathway that takes into account various values.