A budget cut by Taiwan's opposition parties has forced the Presidential Office to cancel 15,000 Mid-Autumn gift boxes ordered from sheltered workshops, hurting disabled workers and the charities that employ them.

• Opposition lawmakers used their majority to strip and freeze the Presidential Office's NT$30 million discretionary fund, killing the annual gift box order.
• 37 sheltered workshops and disability groups lost the sale, one of the biggest of their year.
• In Taichung alone, five groups lost more than 1,500 boxes worth over NT$500,000.
• Taichung mayor Lu Shiow-yen blamed the Presidential Office for "abandoning the order" and told her city government to buy the same amount instead.
• Staff at one charity said children asked whether they had done something wrong when the order was cancelled.

Outlook: Taichung's city government will step in to cover the lost orders, but the fight over who is to blame is set to become a political flashpoint.