“Pradorn” welcomes the Thai Chua Thai Plus program as registrations have dropped to only 8 million rights left. He emphasized that those undergoing the 3-day verification process should not worry, as their rights are already reserved. For welfare cardholders, the government maintains the figure of 13.2 million rights before conducting a new survey, following cases where recipients were found not genuinely eligible.
At 10:30 a.m. on 25 May 2026 at the Government House, Mr. Pradorn Prissanantakul, Minister attached to the Prime Minister’s Office, spoke about the first day of Thai Chua Thai Plus registration. He explained there are two cases: one group can receive rights immediately upon registration, and another group must wait for verification. The latter are those not previously in the program and their eligibility must be confirmed by the Ministry of Interior, a process expected to take about 3 days, though it may be faster.
Regarding public concern that the 30 million rights quota might be filled during the verification wait, Mr. Pradorn said that within the first 25 minutes of the morning, about 10 million rights were registered. By 10:30 a.m., about 8 million rights remained. For those shown as undergoing the 3-day verification, the system has already reserved rights for them. Once verified, they will officially receive their rights.
On whether there will be a review of the state welfare card, Mr. Pradorn noted there have been many complaints—some genuinely poor people have not received benefits, while others who received benefits were not truly poor. Therefore, the government plans to review the 13.2 million rights. The Ministry of Interior will survey those not included in this 13.2 million to identify who are truly poor or below the poverty line. This data will be coordinated with the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security (MSDHS) and sent to the Ministry of Finance. The Ministry of Finance will then apply its criteria—such as annual income, land ownership, and business registration—to screen the 13.2 million rights. The survey results from the Ministry of Interior will provide updated figures. This process is expected to take about 2 months. For the first 2 months of the Thai Chua Thai Plus program, the existing welfare cardholder numbers will be used. Afterwards, adjustments will be made to reflect the updated cardholder figures.
Regarding whether this project proposal will be submitted to the screening committee for the second budget allocation, Mr. Pradorn said that the committee, chaired by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Finance, has not yet discussed this matter. So far, only discussions about the registration system have taken place.