Thailand proposes retirement savings lottery to combat poverty

[snoop1130]

 

Thailand faces a growing issue of an ageing population entering retirement without sufficient savings. This problem is exacerbated by the country’s rapid transition into an aged society, and cannot be resolved merely through increased budget allocations for elderly allowances.

 

Deputy Finance Minister Paophum Rojanasakul announced that the Ministry of Finance is considering a new policy called the Retirement Savings Lottery. This innovative approach aims to leverage the Thai people’s fondness for gambling as a motivator for saving. Participants can withdraw their total lottery ticket purchases upon reaching the retirement age of 60.

 

The preliminary details of the policy, which may be subject to change, are as follows:

• The National Savings Fund (NSF) will issue digital scratch-off lottery tickets priced at 50 baht (US$ 1.3) each. These will be available for NSF members, Section 40 insured persons, and informal workers. Individuals can purchase up to 3,000 baht (US$ 82) worth of tickets per month.
• Tickets can be bought daily, but the lottery draws will take place every Friday at 5pm. Winners will receive their prizes immediately, while the money spent on tickets will be saved as retirement funds, irrespective of winning.

 

The prize structure for the Friday Draw includes:

 

• 1. Five first prizes of 1,000,000 baht (US$27,400) each.
• 2. 10,000 second prizes of 1,000 baht (US$ 27) each.

 

All lottery ticket purchases will contribute to the buyer’s savings, managed by the NSF. Upon reaching 60 years of age, participants can withdraw their accumulated funds, Paophum said.

 

“This policy aims to address the issue of elderly poverty in Thailand. Voluntary savings mechanisms currently in place are ineffective. We need a savings system tied to incentives.

 

“By purchasing legal lottery tickets, participants accumulate savings. Winners receive immediate payouts, while non-winners still save every baht for retirement. The more tickets bought, the greater the chances of winning and the higher the accumulated savings.”

 

The deputy finance minister noted that the policy is still in the process of fine-tuning and will require legal amendments, which may take six months to a year to complete. However, efforts will be made to expedite the process, reported Sanook.

 

By Bright Choomanee

Picture courtesy of Posttoday

 

Source: The Thaiger 2024-06-06

 

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[LS24]

A thoroughly good idea that was successful in other places in the past. He really though the Lotteries consortiums lobby to close the schemes down when official lottery revenue drops.

[ikke1959]

Stupidity of world level. Gambling is forbidden, big issues to open casinos, only lottery allowed by Government and no a lottery fo the retored who don:t have enough money? A normal person can not get such ideas. Get rid of this government as soon as possible

[dinsdale]

We know you don't have enough money now for your retirement so why not spend some of what little you have on a 100,000,000+ to 1 long shot. Bt3000 p/m. That's about half of the base pension. The empty headed idiots that run the show here are an excellent example of the elitist system. All money and no brains. We'll take your money that you spend on tickets and keep it nice and safe for you. What could go wrong. Apart from this will it be means tested? Why should the rich be allowed to participate. 

[John Drake]

My wife would love this. She could max out the monthly minimum every week.

[dinsdale]

1 hour ago, dinsdale said:

We know you don't have enough money now for your retirement so why not spend some of what little you have on a 100,000,000+ to 1 long shot. Bt3000 p/m. That's about half of the base pension. The empty headed idiots that run the show here are an excellent example of the elitist system. All money and no brains. We'll take your money that you spend on tickets and keep it nice and safe for you. What could go wrong. Apart from this will it be means tested? Why should the rich be allowed to participate. 

 

3 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

These will be available for NSF members, Section 40 insured persons, and informal workers. Individuals can purchase up to 3,000 baht (US$ 82) worth of tickets per month.

I missed this bit which sort of answers my question about the rich but having said this I have on more than one occasion seen someone getting out of a Merc going into a store that accepts the blue card and using it. The rich (esp. the Chinese) will find a way to buy these tickets.

[mancub]

And once these folk turn 60. they will suddenly become very popular with family members.......or a target in some cases !

[fondue zoo]

once again, WTF

 

 

4 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

Voluntary savings mechanisms currently in place are ineffective.

 

Wow big surprise, you allow the average person here to be paid 2 potatoes a day.

 

 

[loong]

12 hours ago, LS24 said:

He really though the Lotteries consortiums lobby to close the schemes down when official lottery revenue drops.

Huh??????????

[ronster]

Great idea !

Turn people into gambling addicts when working so they may get depressed from wasting all their money every month buying lottery tickets. Then they will end up committing suicide due to depression and not live to collect their pension payments from buying lottery tickets 🙄

[klauskunkel]

13 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

the money spent on tickets will be saved as retirement funds

Somehow I can't help but thinking that the money spent on tickets will vanish without a trace...

[hotchilli]

13 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

Deputy Finance Minister Paophum Rojanasakul announced that the Ministry of Finance is considering a new policy called the Retirement Savings Lottery. This innovative approach aims to leverage the Thai people’s fondness for gambling as a motivator for saving. Participants can withdraw their total lottery ticket purchases upon reaching the retirement age of 60.

 

[RichardColeman]

14 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

Participants can withdraw their total lottery ticket purchases upon reaching the retirement age of 60.

 

The only possible way that they can refund the total ticket purchase would be either A. add a surcharge for buying a digital ticket in order to run the lottery, or B. Rely heavily on a vast number of people dying prior to 60 and not being able to cash it in ! If this goes through, expect discount vouchers on ciggies and alcohol to help with people dying before 60

[brianthainess]

15 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

Participants can withdraw their total lottery ticket purchases upon reaching the retirement age of 60.

Don't they mean just the winnings ? surely not the money spent on tickets ? So as I understand it if you win nothing you are worse off. Surely some of profit should go into pension funds. Maybe I have miss read it but it is not clear to me.

[GreasyFingers]

Is my maths correct: 1,000,000 + 10,000,000 (10,000x1000) = 11,000,000 every week payout.

So they are going to put away 11M + each week in the retirement kitty and payout 11M each week.

[LS24]

16 hours ago, LS24 said:

A thoroughly good idea that was successful in other places in the past. He really though the Lotteries consortiums lobby to close the schemes down when official lottery revenue drops.

A thoroughly good idea that was successful in other places in the past. In the US and other places the Lotteries consortium lobbied to close the schemes down when official lottery revenue dropped. Thai people are already large users of the lottery. Having this system is a type of savings plan.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prize-linked_savings_account

 

[soalbundy]

16 hours ago, ikke1959 said:

Stupidity of world level. Gambling is forbidden, big issues to open casinos, only lottery allowed by Government and no a lottery fo the retored who don:t have enough money? A normal person can not get such ideas. Get rid of this government as soon as possible

It's a good idea as a stop gab to a funded pension fund and way beyond. Thailand is having the same problems as the west, demographics! Not enough young workers and lots of old people, the problem has to be solved with 'outside the box' thinking. In Europe there are ideas to tax robots and eventually AI systems to prop up the pension funds including immigration of young qualified people. (I worked at Fords Dagenham in the past and met a toolmaker who was a native from the Amazon rain forest, he married a British missionary and was trained by Fords)

[soalbundy]

16 hours ago, ikke1959 said:

Stupidity of world level. Gambling is forbidden, big issues to open casinos, only lottery allowed by Government and no a lottery fo the retored who don:t have enough money? A normal person can not get such ideas. Get rid of this government as soon as possible

What would be your idea to a disastrous demographic problem? Just pi$$ing on ideas that could provide a solution isn't helpful.

[chickenslegs]

3 hours ago, brianthainess said:

Don't they mean just the winnings ? surely not the money spent on tickets ? So as I understand it if you win nothing you are worse off. Surely some of profit should go into pension funds. Maybe I have miss read it but it is not clear to me.

The way I read it is that all the money spent on tickets is returned to the buyer at retirement age, without any accrued interest. Any winnings are paid out at the time of winning.

UK Premium Bonds are similar (no accrued interest), except that you can withdraw at any time.

 

[ikke1959]

7 minutes ago, soalbundy said:

What would be your idea to a disastrous demographic problem? Just pi$$ing on ideas that could provide a solution isn't helpful.

Make people addicted is agood idea indeed. They have all laws to prevent gambling but this is om

[soalbundy]

Just now, ikke1959 said:

Make people addicted is agood idea indeed. They have all laws to prevent gambling but this is om

Lotteries are already legal and very popular.

[ikke1959]

15 minutes ago, soalbundy said:

It's a good idea as a stop gab to a funded pension fund and way beyond. Thailand is having the same problems as the west, demographics! Not enough young workers and lots of old people, the problem has to be solved with 'outside the box' thinking. In Europe there are ideas to tax robots and eventually AI systems to prop up the pension funds including immigration of young qualified people. (I worked at Fords Dagenham in the past and met a toolmaker who was a native from the Amazon rain forest, he married a British missionary and was trained by Fords)

By gambling which is forbidden in Thailand..they better should start with register everybody in the place they live and let everybody fill in a tax form what they do, how much they earn how many savings etc. I think there is much more to het to create a social security system

[ikke1959]

2 minutes ago, soalbundy said:

Lotteries are already legal and very popular.

Not legal only the government lottery

[soalbundy]

1 minute ago, ikke1959 said:

Not legal only the government lottery

Yes, a popular legal lottery

[soalbundy]

11 minutes ago, ikke1959 said:

By gambling which is forbidden in Thailand..they better should start with register everybody in the place they live and let everybody fill in a tax form what they do, how much they earn how many savings etc. I think there is much more to het to create a social security system

You could see that working could you? Creating a social security system from scratch is difficult and expensive, especially with the poor demographic structure and longevity of today. When the UK started it was something like a shilling a week for 70 year old's when hardly any worker reached that age but it was a start and grew gradually over decades to its present system, Thailand doesn't have decades. There is already a government lottery in place, I don't see hoards of gambling addicts around. If people want to gamble there are already ample opportunities.

[retarius]

Probably a good idea....but Thai's competence doesn't seem to include long term thinking. If I were Thai I would be worried that all those thieving politicians would be right near my money and very likely to steal it, then we'd find out years too late to be able to do anything about it, whereas the thieves will be out on appeal for the rest of their lives. 

[BE88]

 

Is it a joke right ?

[ikke1959]

25 minutes ago, soalbundy said:

You could see that working could you? Creating a social security system from scratch is difficult and expensive, especially with the poor demographic structure and longevity of today. When the UK started it was something like a shilling a week for 70 year old's when hardly any worker reached that age but it was a start and grew gradually over decades to its present system, Thailand doesn't have decades. There is already a government lottery in place, I don't see hoards of gambling addicts around. If people want to gamble there are already ample opportunities.

I know it is difficult grom dcratch but you have to start somewhere. The money for the 10k digital wallet scheme could be used in a better way. Thai government has no idea who lived wjetr is doing what and earn how much. How can you help people if you don' t have the  complete picture. Same with this idea, people who don't have enough money already can gamble for the future. Thai people never think a week ahead, what about 10/20 years?

 

[Roo Island]

Wealth inequality is one of the biggest problems in Thailand. Land tax could help a lot. The rich pay almost nothing now and own a majority of the land.

[ed strong]

The government just getting a cash inflow here, subsidised by the poor people of Thailand.

 

If I give you a thousand baht today and you pay me back a thousand in 3 years time. I've just lost around 20 % of my purchasing power through inflation.

 

Government treats its citizens like right plonkers!