Social Protection

Building social protection floors
and comprehensive social security systems

Thailand

Publications

See all

Situation and Priorities

Social protection situation
Thailand has a relatively comprehensive social protection system. There are 44 non-contributory government welfare programmes that take care of people in all age ranges. They are complemented by a comprehensive social insurance scheme managed by the Social Security Office, including several branches such as pension; invalidity; working injury; family, health, sickness and maternity benefits.

Despite the high level of coverage reached by some of its individual programmes, Thailand is one of the few countries that does not have a common and integrated social protection policy framework, impacting negatively on system efficiency and effectiveness, both now and in the longer term. Coverage gaps remain, particularly for migrants and domestic workers, and work remains to be done to improve the adequacy of benefits.
See also ISSA country profiles
COVID-19 and other crises
Thailand extended financial protection for health expenses, increased both the benefit levels and the duration of unemployment benefits, and provided a wage subsidy of 62% of a worker’s salary for up to 90 days if they have been furloughed due to their company being shut down by the government.

They also initiated a scheme providing 5,000 Thai baht (US$160) per month for three months to informal workers. This scheme reached 16 million workers (45% of the labour force). However, the adequacy of benefits provided has often been low. The replacement rate provided for unemployment benefits is higher (at 70%) than that provided by the employment retention wage subsidy (62%). This may create an incentive for workers and employers to resort to unemployment benefits, rather than the wage subsidy program.
Visit the Social Protection COVID-19 Monitor
Government and social partner priorities
  • Reinforce existing social security provision and extend cover to different target groups, taking into account sustainability constraints and the need to improve adequacy.
  • Support improvements through rigorous social protection mechanisms, revision of laws and regulations and the development of financing and governance processes, both nationally and locally.

Results

The launch of the Universal Child Grant in April 2015 was a policy development which came about as a legacy of the Assessment Based National Dialogue (ABND) process which the ILO coordinated in 2013. In 2015, ILO provided technical assistance for the revision and adoption of the Social Security Act, which extends coverage to all self-employed and informal economy workers.
See all

News and Events

See all

Workspaces

See all