'Enough social security money' to cover almost 1m laid off in pandemic

By The Nation

 

 

The Social Security Office (SSO) has confirmed it has sufficient funds to pay unemployment support for almost 1 million people who have lost their jobs during the Covid-19 crisis.

 

Todsapol Krittawongwiman, SSO secretary-general, said there had been 1,117,841 applications for support but only 958,304 qualified. The rest were repeat registrants, he said.

 

Since April 17, the office has made 455,717 support payments, with another 207,895 in the pipeline. The office will deliver 294,692 payments to employees via their employers.

 

Of the total Bt2 trillion in the social security fund, 82 per cent is being invested in collaterals backed by the Finance Ministry, including bonds issued by the government, the Bank of Thailand and state enterprises.

 

The rest is being funnelled into safe investments in infrastructure and real estate.

 

Source: https://www.nationthailand.com/news/30387256

 

-- © Copyright The Nation Thailand 2020-05-04

 

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There are tens of millions of people out of work due to COVID right now.

 

This fund barely scratches the surface. That's why we see news about suicides of destitute people every day.

 

The government needs to get off its lazy ass and actually do something.

How much for these? How much for the people?

 

1 hour ago, snoop1130 said:

The Social Security Office (SSO) has confirmed it has sufficient funds to pay unemployment support for almost 1 million people who have lost their jobs during the Covid-19 crisis.

and what about the other 10m+ who also have no work - just let them rot

It is all right saying this ,but the Thai SS system  funds pension and   medical expenses ,Thai's  will not be happy to find that they have been paying in to the fund for X years, and they can not claim for they stay in hospital ,or like a friend of mine finds his pension has been cut. 

The subject of the Thai SS system come up awhile ago ,the government wants to get its claws on that money but some something wrote in the Thai constitution say's it can not. 

11 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

Of the total Bt2 trillion in the social security fund, 82 per cent is being invested in collaterals backed by the Finance Ministry, including bonds issued by the government, the Bank of Thailand and state enterprises.

Herein lies a potential problem. The SSO only has enough money to meet its obligations if it can redeem enough investments. With so much invested in government bonds, will the government allow / can the government afford for them to be cashed in or sold on the market. Maybe Prayut's billionaire buddies can be talked into stepping in and buying some. (At a huge discount of course!)

Edited May 4, 20206 yr by bangkokfrog

The future of the strong baht looks a bit shaky.

9 hours ago, kickstart said:

It is all right saying this ,but the Thai SS system  funds pension and   medical expenses ,Thai's  will not be happy to find that they have been paying in to the fund for X years, and they can not claim for they stay in hospital ,or like a friend of mine finds his pension has been cut. 

The subject of the Thai SS system come up awhile ago ,the government wants to get its claws on that money but some something wrote in the Thai constitution say's it can not. 

 

Which constitution?  They seem to write a new one for each coup, then another one between coups.

 

I worry about the people of Thailand more than most other countries.  

The gold selling was very worrying.  

And we should know that the chances of tourism coming back this year is an absolute zero. That includes the busy season in the fall /winter.  Again, nobody hopes that I am more wrong than me.

The other 25 million can starve then !! ????

15 hours ago, ukrules said:

The government needs to get off its lazy ass and actually do something

Opening the purse strings would be a good start.

Oh wow...enough for 1 million people!

...out of approx. 20 million, who lost their jobs or are not able to work, due to government implemented restrictions!

Wow!

(by the way: not saying these restrictons are wrongly implemented! Just saying: if you implement them, you should have a plan, how to handle the fallout! ...wait...Thailand...plan...I tricked myself!)