Opening day of 2022 welfare sees 1.86 million people register
Yesterday marked the opening date for registration for state welfare for 2022, and people flooded the registration process both online and in person. By 3pm on the opening day, officials reported that 1.86 million people across Thailand had already registered for the state welfare card project.
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Finance, who also serves as the director-general of the Fiscal Policy Office, confirmed the numbers with the huge swell of applicants. He said that 248,696 showed up in person to file for the welfare card with relevant organisations. Another 1.61 million people took part in the online registration process in order to obtain state welfare.
For those who prefer to come in person to register for their state welfare card, several banks, organisations, and governmental offices serve as contact points and branches to receive and process the application. People can apply at district offices and provincial finance offices around Thailand, as well as Pattaya City Hall.
Banks such as Krungthai Bank, Government Savings Bank, and Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives opened their branches to be used as locations for registration for the government welfare card.
Many people who would qualify for the welfare programme and often need it the most are unable to complete the registration in person due to a disability, being bedridden, or they are too elderly to travel to the registration office. For those people, special allowances have been made to allow those in need to give specific authorization for another person to act on their behalf at a registration office until the deadline on October 19.
Last year 13.65 million people were state welfare recipients in Thailand. Eligibility requirements were revised but applicants must be a Thailand citizen that has an income lower than 100,000 baht per year (around US$3,000). The Ministry of Finance predicted late last year that, due to the lasting effect of the Covid-19 pandemic, the number of Thais receiving state welfare would likely increase by over 1 million, totalling around 15 million people.
SOURCE: Thai News Agency MCOT
