Bangkok – Thailand’s Department of Children and Youth, or DYC, is training officials to enroll eligible families in the government’s newly extended newborn allowance campaign, expecting to start paying out allowances from July.
The Department’s Director General, Somkid Somsri, revealed that the department is currently finalizing detailed plans for the campaign, which has recently been adjusted to cover more children in accordance with the Cabinet’s resolution of 26 March 2019.
The adjusted allowance will provide 60 baht monthly to eligible low-income families for their children from birth until 6 years old, which has been extended from the previous scheme which only granted allowances to children from birth until 3 years old. The maximum per family allowance cap has also been raised to 100,000 baht per child per family to comply with the existing welfare campaign for low income earners.
Families currently benefiting from the previous allowance program, with children born between 2016 and 2019, will automatically continue to receive the allowance until the children reach 6 years old, while families with children born on or after 1 October 2015 who have not yet enrolled in the program, can enroll to start receiving monthly allowances from the date of enrollment until the children reach 6 years old, but cannot retrospectively claim for any allowances before the registration.
Children born in 2019 to eligible families will receive monthly allowances from birth until 6 years old, however any family which fails to enroll within the 2019 fiscal year will only start receiving their allowances after the date of enrollment.
The DCY is arranging training for local officials from the 9th to the 26th of April 2019 to prepare for a seamless enrollment processes and troubleshooting. It is expected eligible families can start enrolling from May, with the first payments being made in July this year.
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