Bangkok, ‘Phao Bhum’ moves forward with ‘retirement lottery’, confident that the first round of sales will begin early next year. Preparing to consider allowing those over 60 years old to purchase.
Mr. Pao Bhum Rojanasakul, Deputy Minister of Finance, said after chairing the opening ceremony of ‘9 years of the Social Security Fund, moving towards a secure future’ and joining the seminar ‘New Vision Retirement Lottery Savings for an Aging Society’ that Thailand has now entered a complete aging society. Welfare for the elderly is paid in stages according to age. As an agency under the supervision of the Ministry of Finance, the Social Security Fund realizes the importance of financial planning so that people outside the labor force or self-employed persons aged 15-60 can start saving from 50 baht but not exceeding 3,000 baht per year, and the government will support up to 100% but not exceeding 1,800 baht per year, so that they can save money for retirement for a secure life in their old age. ‘Thai people hav
e the problem of being old but poor and having no savings. Therefore, we must use a new mechanism to encourage them to save more money through the retirement savings lottery or the retirement lottery in the first phase, focusing on informal workers and insured persons under Section 40, who are considered low-income and vulnerable groups,’ said Mr. Pao Bhum.
Currently, the National Savings Fund Act is being amended, which is expected to be proposed to the Cabinet meeting in September. The Ministry of Finance is considering allowing those over 60 to purchase retirement lottery tickets. At the same time, it is preparing to consider expanding the rights in the next phase to cover all occupations. In the second phase, it will be expanded to workers in the formal sector, and in the third phase, it will be civil servants. It has been confirmed that the first round of retirement lottery sales will start in early 2025. The number of lottery tickets per round will be 5 million tickets via the GSF app, which can be fle
xible if there is more demand. This will result in a total of 13 billion baht entering the GSF system, and some of the money from the sale of retirement lottery tickets will be invested through various funds, which is another way to stimulate the financial market.
‘The budget used for the retirement lottery project does not affect the fiscal burden because it is only 700 million baht per year. During this time, the Ministry of Finance and the Government Savings Bank will organize travel activities to each region to listen to opinions about the project. Starting to save by yourself is one option that helps these groups of people to have money to use in retirement, more or less. And we have to admit that this problem cannot be solved in a short period of time. But I am confident that it will help reduce the problem of old Thais being poor to some extent, including helping reduce the fiscal burden for the country in another way,’ said Mr. Pao Bhum.
Source: Thai News Agency