A budget fight in Taiwan's legislature has cut off Mid-Autumn gift box orders for disabled workers, exposing a purchasing system that has been failing them for years.

• Opposition lawmakers cut NT$30 million from the presidential office's discretionary fund, killing orders for 15,000 gift boxes from 37 sheltered workshops.
• Government agencies are supposed to buy 10% of their goods from disability groups and sheltered workshops, but 40% of that obligation ends in failed or unfilled tenders.
• The gap adds up to NT$700 million to NT$1 billion in orders that exist on paper but never reach the workers.
• Agencies can count unfilled amounts toward their quota, a loophole that lets them claim compliance without buying anything.
• Both sides are accusing each other of using disabled workers as a political weapon rather than fixing the system.

Outlook: Calls are growing to raise the minimum real purchase rate, close the unfilled-tender loophole, and publish agency-by-agency order data, but nothing has changed yet.