Aekniti confirms readiness to restore State Welfare Card rights to individuals deceived into becoming company directors or shareholders. He points out that budget is not the issue, but rather the need to help those who have nothing by targeting assistance appropriately.
25 Jul 2026 GMT+7 Mr. Aekniti Nitithanprapas, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, spoke at the 2026 Advanced Economic Reporters Development Program about the issues arising from the registration and selection process for the State Welfare Card (commonly known as the 'Poor Card'). He said that Thailand has not updated the welfare card recipient data for over five years, and this update is aimed at helping those who are truly poor to access welfare services.
Through this screening, we were able to add 2.3 million new beneficiaries. However, some who previously had rights lost them, or some who might have been excluded. The problem does not lie in the screening criteria but in some government data that may not have been properly updated. An added benefit of this screening is that it helped identify individuals who were deceived into having their names used as shareholders or company directors, enabling them to become aware and correct the situation.
"I believe the problem is not with the criteria but with incomplete or outdated data, including asset information of applicants and other details. Without this new survey, we would not know the current state of the country's data nor be able to make corrections. There could be many more people deceived into registering as directors or shareholders. I have seen many reports filed about this. If it is proven someone was deceived, we must help and restore their rights."
Mr. Aekniti added that this new beneficiary survey also revealed that out of over 9 million recipients, more than 5 million are working-age adults aged 20-60. This must be addressed. Continuously providing aid to those earning less than 100,000 baht per year indefinitely is unsustainable. The government will use this data to develop job placement and skills training measures to enable these people to increase their income.
"After this new survey and registration of State Welfare Card recipients, whether benefits increase or decrease will not cause budget allocation problems. Our goal is to help those with absolutely nothing by targeting the right people. Considering we already spend over 70 billion baht annually, which is a substantial amount over five years. Additionally, those without welfare cards are not neglected; there is assistance for other groups such as the elderly and disabled pensions. The government aims to support all groups."