Opposition parties in Taiwan's Legislative Yuan have cut and frozen budget funds, affecting the Presidential Office's planned Mid-Autumn Festival gift box orders from sheltered workshops — bad news for workers with physical and mental disabilities.

• The Presidential Office had planned to purchase around 15,000 Mid-Autumn gift boxes this year from 37 sheltered workshops across Taiwan, but the plan has been hit by budget cuts and freezes imposed by the KMT and the TPP.
• Legislator Huang Chieh, who chairs the Democratic Progressive Party's Kaohsiung chapter, sharply criticised the KMT and the TPP for "targeting the disadvantaged," calling it political retaliation that has spilled over onto employment for vulnerable groups.
• In her capacity as chapter chair, she bought 100 boxes of mooncakes from Kaohsiung sheltered workshops to give to party chapter officials and staff.
• For sheltered workshops, every order means a job and an income for a worker with disabilities.
• Huang Chieh called on businesses, government agencies and the public to give priority to sheltered workshop products when buying Mid-Autumn gift boxes this year, using purchases in place of donations.

Outlook: Whether sheltered workshops can make up the shortfall in orders before the Mid-Autumn Festival will depend on whether private individuals and businesses follow suit with their own purchases.