UNICEF National Ambassador Madam Pang supports expansion of Child Support Grant to ensure no child is left behind

BANGKOK, 16 October 2023 – UNICEF Thailand National Ambassador Nualphan Lamsam, known as Madam Pang, supports the expansion of the Child Support Grant scheme to ensure that all children under six years old in Thailand receive a benefit which is crucial for their development and well-being. 

Last week, Madam Pang visited Suea Yai community in Bangkok where she met families with young children who benefited from the grant. During the visit, parents shared stories about their economic hardship, and how the grant helped provide basic care for their children. Madam Pang also met a family with a 7-month-old boy who has not received the grant despite signing up for this scheme several months ago.  

In Thailand, poverty among children is significantly higher than the national average - 10 per cent compared with 6 per cent. Around 1 in 5 children live in multidimensional poverty – facing multiple deprivations in daily life such as poor health, lack of education, and inadequate living standards, according to the Office of the National Economic and Social Development Council. 

“This field visit is an eye-opening experience for me. I must thank both families from the bottom of my heart for welcoming me into their homes and giving me the opportunity to listen to their stories, to understand and learn that the monthly child support grant really makes a life-changing difference to families with children, especially those who are struggling to make ends meet,” said Nualphan Lamsam, UNICEF Thailand National Ambassador. 

“For families living in poverty, the grant means nourishing food, toys, and learning materials for their children. It means a peace of mind for the parents whose stress over making ends meet directly impacts the wellbeing of their children. All of these are crucial for children’s development, especially during the early years which lay the foundation for lifelong learning and productivity. Therefore, ensuring that the grant reaches every child in the country and no one, especially children from poor families, is missing out on it, is a cause that we should give importance to and make it become a reality, for the future of every child and Thailand.” Madam Pang said. 

Adopted in 2015, the Child Support Grant provides a minimum level of social protection for children under six years old in Thailand. Today, the scheme provides a 600-baht monthly cash grant to 2.3 million children under six whose family earns less than 100,000-baht income per person per year. Yet, the scheme currently covers only half of the population under six years old in Thailand.  Many children living in poor families who are eligible for the grant are missing out due to errors during the screening and registration process.   

UNICEF and partners have called on the Royal Thai Government to expand the grant to all children under six to ensure that no child is missing out on the benefits. In addition, the grant amount has not been updated for several years and so needs to increase in order to reflect the actual cost of raising a child today.

Surveys have suggested that families with children are likely to have higher cost of living, loss of income and higher debts especially during economic crises, such as the one brought by the pandemic. 

“Children who grow up in poverty have less opportunity to fulfill their full potential,” said Sarah Shahyar, Chief of Social Policy at UNICEF Thailand. “For individual children and their families, this loss is a tragedy. For society, it is catastrophic. Given the current population dynamics, with an increasingly aged society, the window of opportunity for the country to invest in its children as its most valuable asset is fast closing. So, the need to protect children in Thailand from poverty is not only important but highly urgent.” 

Expanding child support grants has proven to be effective in reducing poverty across the populations of many countries, Shahyar added. Evidence has shown that universal cash benefits provided to children in middle-income countries at a cost of just 1 per cent of Gross Domestic Product can lead to a 20 per cent decline in poverty across the entire population. There is no trade-off between redistribution and growth.

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