Finance Ministry Relaxes Welfare Card Eligibility for Old Vehicles and Students

The Finance Ministry is proposing to relax eligibility criteria for the state welfare card, restoring benefits to groups including owners of older vehicles, alternative education students, and those with low-value securities accounts. The revised guidelines will be submitted to the Cabinet for approval on July 27.

Vinij Visetsuwannaphum, director of the Office of Fiscal Policy, announced that the committee for public welfare and grassroots economic development has reviewed and is preparing to adjust the criteria and conditions for the state welfare card. He reported that approximately 3.4 million people have requested a review of their disqualification status from the 9.3 million initially ineligible applicants, with roughly 40 percent of appeals related to vehicle ownership issues. The committee is ready to modify conditions covering old vehicles, scrapped vehicles, transferred ownership, and fraudulent vehicle registrations.

Vinij noted that investigations uncovered many people denied benefits simply because they held securities accounts, but deeper review found many had opened accounts years ago without trading or held minimal assets worth just hundreds of baht. The committee approved exempting the securities account requirement for those with no trading activity or very low account values.

Another adjustment involves relaxing criteria for students in non-formal or alternative education systems, such as self-taught or vocational learners who must work while studying. The committee concluded that people should not have to choose between education and government welfare benefits, and thus approved exempting these conditions.

Sompong Paitoolpong, director-general of the Department of Land Transport, outlined new guidelines the committee will propose to the Cabinet regarding vehicle ownership issues. For old vehicles, the exemptions will include vehicles 20 years or older and motorcycles 15 years or older. For newer vehicles damaged in accidents and totaled, owners can request the Department of Land Transport to restore their benefits. However, high-value vehicles such as Harley-Davidson motorcycles, classic cars, and collector vehicles will not be exempted, as their owners are not considered to be in hardship.

For the existing 2.5 million cardholders who have registered vehicle purchases, cases involving used vehicles 20 years or older that were only recently registered will require detailed review. If the purchase was recent, it may be considered a new acquisition and thus benefits may not be restored.