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.
