The Finance Ministry looks set to submit revised eligibility criteria for the state welfare card scheme to the cabinet, removing parental tax deduction and agricultural loan requirements following criticism that the existing criteria were unfair.
According to Vinit Visessuvanapoom, director-general of the Fiscal Policy Office (FPO) and spokesperson for the Finance Ministry, the eighth meeting of the Pracharat Welfare Committee for the Grassroots Economy and Society acknowledged the preliminary results of the registration and eligibility screening for the 2026 State Welfare Registration Programme.
The committee also approved expanding the target group to include approximately 5.38 million vulnerable people who do not currently hold state welfare cards.
The group was identified by the Interior Ministry during field registration conducted from June 4 to June 21, and will now undergo the standard qualification verification process.
Under the revised eligibility screening for the 2026 programme, the government will no longer consider whether an applicant's children have claimed personal income tax deductions for supporting their parents when determining eligibility. The previous rule had disqualified applicants whose children claimed such deductions.
The ministry has also reviewed the 100,000-baht total outstanding loan limit, taking into account recommendations made by the Bank of Thailand during the cabinet's consideration of the programme on June 2. Under the proposed revision, agricultural loans will no longer be counted towards the loan ceiling.
The ministry said agricultural loans differ from conventional borrowing because they are tied to crop production cycles and, in some cases, are extended as disaster relief following natural calamities. As such, they do not necessarily reflect a person's access to credit or overall financial position in the same way as other types of loans.
In addition, the Finance Ministry is considering allowing current state welfare cardholders who become ineligible under the 2026 state welfare card programme to receive benefits under the "Thai Chuay Thai Plus" (60/40) programme for two months, from Aug 1 to Sept 30.
The proposal is intended to assist existing cardholders who were unable to register for the Thai Chuay Thai Plus (60/40) scheme during its registration period because they were not eligible to apply.
The revised criteria will be submitted to the cabinet for approval before the government announces the results of the 2026 state welfare registration on July 17.
