Thailand to reassess state welfare card criteria amid wage hike

The Finance Ministry intends to reassess the eligibility criteria for state welfare cards in light of the planned minimum wage increase.

Deputy Finance Minister Julapun Amornvivat announced that the ministry will conduct a review of the criteria next year, allowing new registrations for Thais who wish to apply for state welfare cards. The review aims to determine if the current criteria remain appropriate given the proposed increase in the daily minimum wage from 300 baht to 400 baht.

Julapun highlighted the necessity of re-evaluating the data to identify qualification thresholds for vulnerable groups. With the proposed wage hike, some individuals may no longer fall under the vulnerable category, thus losing their eligibility for state welfare benefits.

Pornchai Thiraveja, Director-General of the Fiscal Policy Office, confirmed that the Finance Ministry has a policy of reviewing the eligibility of state welfare cardholders every two years. The last review took place in 2022, with the next one scheduled to begin this year.

However, due to recent flooding, the focus has shifted to assisting affected individuals, leading to the postponement of the new registration review until early 2025.

The government expressed its intention to raise the minimum wage to 400 baht per day, initially targeting implementation this month. However, disagreements among employers, employees, and government representatives have delayed the timeline.

Current criteria

Currently, the main criterion for receiving a state welfare card is having a personal and family annual income not exceeding 100,000 baht, calculated based on a 300 baht per day minimum wage. In the 2022 registration round, 13.5 million individuals were deemed eligible, down from 14.9 million in the previous round. The reduction in eligible recipients was attributed to the deaths of some beneficiaries.

According to KhaoSod, the 2022 criteria were also updated to consider family income. For instance, if a housewife has no personal income but her husband has sufficient income or assets to support the household, and the family’s total income per person exceeds the threshold of 100,000 baht per year, she would not qualify for a welfare card.

Other criteria remain unchanged. Applicants must be Thai nationals aged 18 or older and cannot be monks, novices, inmates, residents of care facilities, civil servants, government employees, pensioners, members of parliament, or senators.

Financial assets, including deposits, bonds, and other debt instruments, must not exceed 100,000 baht per person per year to qualify for a state welfare card. Additional criteria include limits on loans, such as no more than 1.5 million baht in home loans and 1 million baht in car loans.

Applicants cannot have credit cards or property and land ownership rights exceeding limits set by the Finance Ministry.