A Taiwan budget cut has cut off orders that give disabled workers their jobs, hurting sheltered workshops right before their busiest season.

• KMT lawmaker Weng Xiaoling's proposal, passed with the TPP, froze and cut the entire NT$30 million presidential office affairs fund.
• The presidential office had already priced and pre-ordered 15,000 Mid-Autumn gift boxes from 37 sheltered workshops, and those orders may now collapse.
• Mid-Autumn is the peak season for these workshops, which employ people with physical and mental disabilities who earn their own wages.
• The same fund was slashed last year, which already halved one workshop's orders and forced it to scramble for other buyers.
• Buying holiday gift boxes from these workshops has been a bipartisan practice under four presidents; the fund also pays for disaster condolences and rewards for frontline police and troops.

Outlook: With the money frozen and legally barred from being reallocated, the workshops face lost income and shaky job security for their disabled workers this autumn.