Civic groups call out welfare smart card as 'unfair' to poor

Civic groups call out welfare smart card as 'unfair' to poor

Civic groups voiced their objection to the welfare smart card in a seminar on welfare reform on Saturday, saying it failed to help the poorest bracket of society.

Sureerat Treemanka, coordinator of the People's Network Moving for Welfare State, urged the government to scrap the welfare plan before more damage is done.

"The welfare smart card is a selective welfare policy based on the belief that since the government does not have enough money, it must come up with a target welfare scheme," said Ms Sureerat at the seminar. "But we believe that the government can only provide better and more equal welfare if it has the political courage to exercise drastic policies.

"This would include imposing heavy taxes on rich and privileged groups, and stopping the lavishing of investors with tax breaks and land concessions to lure them to invest in special economic zones without ever getting guarantee that they will bring in smart and innovative technology."

The seminar's participants echoed the sentiment that the welfare smart card is problematic.

Chuti-orn Ratanaamornvej, representative of the Four Region Slums Network, said that many poor people are excluded from welfare benefits as their income and data profiles do not fit the state's requirements.

Ms Chuti-orn added that some community leaders using names in joint bank accounts for social and community projects are disqualified from using the welfare smart card despite the fact that they earn less than 30,000 baht annually.

Ranong Soonsuwan, an activist campaigning for a better welfare system, said that many low-income people have found that the price of goods in Thong Fah Pracharat's authorised shops are one to three baht more expensive than shops elsewhere. The location of these shops is also seen as problematic as they are often located faraway from the communities that need them. This causes welfare recipients to pay extra money for transport costs, he noted.

"If the military-appointed government wants to help poor people get back on their own feet, the government must stop issuing policies that only benefit some wealthy groups, and it must put an end to its selective and inconsistent welfare schemes," said Mr Ranong. "The government should focus on how to create basic equal pensions and find ways to narrow the income gap."

The civic groups at the seminar produced a joint statement featuring two recommendations to the government. The first recommendation was to stop selective welfare policies. The second was to stop the limited use of economic data to make decisions, urging a co-reliance on sustainable growth indicators to determine the country's development policies.

These groups are also gathering their own data on poverty issues in Thailand to counter the government's statement that the number of poor people is on the decline in the country. They plan to submit their findings to the United Nations soon.

Ms Sureerat called the government's claim that poverty is set to disappear soon in Thailand misleading. Ms Sureerat cited a finding from Decharut Sukkumnoed, an economic lecturer at Kasetsart University. A recent social media post by Mr Decharut quoting data from the National Economic and Social Economic Board says that the number of people living below the poverty line -- meaning 2,920 baht per month -- increased 20% from 4.84 to 5.81 million from 2015-16.

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