The Thai cabinet has approved a package of financial support, which includes a one-time 1,000 baht subsidy for each of Thailand’s 2.03 million registered disabled people.

The support is to be disbursed from the Fund for the Promotion and Development of the Disabled to people who have registered with the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security.

Additionally, 120,000 disabled people aged under 18 years old will have their monthly welfare allowance increased from 800 baht to 1,000 baht, starting October 1^st.

Under the same package, disabled people and their caretakers will be eligible to borrow up to 10,000 baht each from the Fund, to be used for starting a business or occupation during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The loan will be interest free, will not require a guarantor and will be repayable 12 months after the loan is granted.

Mr. Thanakorn Wangboonkongchana, secretary to the finance minister, explained today that 22.3 million people have registered for the 5,000 baht/month subsidy from the Government, not 27 million as widely misreported.

Of the 22.3 million applications, 16 million were found to be eligible, but only 10.6 million have passed the qualification screening.  The 5,000 baht/month subsidy has been disbursed to 7.5 million applicants to date. The remaining 3. 1 million are to be paid during the first week of May.

Thanathorn said that 6.6 million failed to qualify because they were already covered by other government support schemes, such as the farmer’s support scheme and social security system, of which about 4.2 million are registered as farmers and 1.1 million are covered under the social security system.