PM Anuthins Orders Search For Welfare Card Gaps
Prime Minister Anuthin ordered a review of welfare card eligibility criteria after finding deserving people are being excluded due to outdated rules, directing agencies to proactively identify and assist those who fall through the cracks.
On July 21, government spokesperson Ratchada Thanadirek announced a cabinet resolution in which Prime Minister Anuthins Chanyaveerakul, also serving as Interior Minister, called for a review of state welfare card eligibility criteria. He noted that public feedback reveals many people in genuine hardship are being excluded from the program—such as those who own vehicles no longer roadworthy but still registered in their names, or students working to improve their circumstances whose actual living conditions are not reflected in current criteria.
The PM stressed that citizens should not have to come to the government seeking help; instead, state agencies must proactively reach out, survey local communities, and solve problems on the ground so that deserving people do not fall through the cracks. The Interior Ministry has been tasked with working alongside provincial governors and local units to survey those currently filtered out but who genuinely merit assistance, and to submit findings to the Finance Ministry for swift review.
The Land Transport Department must urgently update vehicle registration records and reduce the burden on citizens seeking to cancel or deregister defunct vehicles, while also proposing legal or regulatory fixes to obstacles in the process. The Finance Ministry has been ordered to quickly review eligibility screening criteria to align with actual hardship conditions and identify rules that may wrongly exclude qualified people, then propose improvements to cabinet.
