The establishment of social security system in Taiwan is following the combination model of social insurance and social assistance schemes. Though the idea of social allowance is being discussed for some time, it has not yet been implemented nationally. During the 1993 county election, the main opposition party-Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) promised to introduce old age allowance schemes in their winning counties, and this promise was realized later on. However, owing to the financial constraints, these schemes has been terminated or condensed in most of the DPP controlled counties. Old age allowance is a type of social allowance, it represents a new strategy which has not been adopted before in Taiwan. This article aims to discuss this implementation experience and to derive implications for the future development of social allowance in this country.