The National Committee for the Elderly will recommend that the cabinet delay the recall of living allowances awarded to elderly citizens already receiving multiple state welfare packages, Deputy Prime Minister Jurin Laksanawisit said yesterday.
Mr Jurin, the committee chairman, said the committee discussed cases of elderly people ordered to return their living allowances to the Comptroller General's Department (CGD) after officials found they had no right to the benefits they had been receiving for years.
The committee also agreed with a recommendation from the Office of the Ombudsman that seniors who receive special pensions should also be eligible for the elderly allowance, he said.
Special pensions are paid to parents of soldiers and police officers who died while on duty.
The recommendations will be presented to the cabinet for further action, Mr Jurin said.
The committee will also ask the cabinet to consider remedial measures for the elderly affected by the collection order and absolve the officials who were bound by duty to proceed with the collection, he said.
A subcommittee has also been told to address legal flaws regarding benefits for senior citizens and look into whether it is legal for some to receive more than one benefit targeted at their age group, Mr Jurin said.
The CGD recently told Buan Losuwan, an 89-year-old woman from Buri Ram, to return allowance payments totalling 84,000 baht after it found she had been receiving a special pension following the death of her army officer son in 2001.
As his next of kin, she inherited his special pension of 10,000 baht a month paid by the army.
According to Interior Ministry regulations, those receiving a state pension or special pensions are not eligible for the elderly allowance.
The ministry had reportedly insisted local administrative organisations had to take back the allowance paid to Ms Buan according to the law, but she could repay the money in instalments.
According to CGD and Department of Local Administration data, about 10 million people received elderly allowances in 2018. Of them, 105,300 were found to have received multiple state benefits at the same time. Officials managed to take back the allowances from 6,731 of them.
Gen Viddhavat Rajatanun, the chief ombudsman, yesterday called a meeting of various agencies to look into a complaint over Ms Buan's case lodged by activist Srisuwan Janya.
He said the meeting also shared the view that those receiving special pensions should still be eligible for the allowance.
He said the problem stems from Interior Ministry regulations and his office had told relevant agencies to amend the regulations within 120 days.
Mr Srisuwan earlier posted on his Facebook page that the CDG had acted unlawfully by sending letters to local administrative organisations ordering them to make the elderly return their allowances.
Elderly people who received the allowance said they were not aware they had no right to it, said Mr Srisuwan.
Speaking after a meeting with a committee on elderly allowances, Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam said it was agreed at the meeting that elderly people who did not return duplicate benefits would not be prosecuted.