Thailand's Child Support Grant: What Is It and What Are Its Impacts?

Thailand can pride itself on its progressive stance towards universal child support coverage as it offers financial aid to eligible poor children aged between zero to six years old through its Child Support Grant (CSG) since it was introduced in 2015 by the Thai government.

But what does the CSG entail and how has it changed the lives of low-income children in the country?

The government launched the CSG as an unconditional, non-contributory cash grant or transfer worth THB400 a month to caregivers or mothers of Thai children aged zero to a year old who have an average income of less than THB36,000 annually, according to the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund's (UNICEF) "The 1st Three: Thailand’s Progressive Road Toward Universal Child Grant Coverage" report. Its goals were to support Thai families in meeting the essential needs of the most vulnerable children; promote access to services that advocate for the development and full potential of children; and break intergenerational poverty.

A year later in 2016, the government expanded the coverage of the CSG to children under three years old and raised the grant to THB600 a month. The CSG's third expansion was implemented in 2019 based on the results from the National Impact Evaluation and Targeting Assignment, and saw the grant expand to children below six years old and the annual income threshold raised from THB36,000 to THB100,000, thus making it more inclusive. The third expansion raised the number of children beneficiaries from 700,000 to 1.8 million.

Since Thailand has an ageing society, UNICEF said it is strategic for the government to focus on human capital development. It added that investing in the development of children in their early years is an effective way to ensure productivity, thus the need for the CSG.

The grant is implemented through the CSG Operation Centre in Thailand's Department of Children and Youth (DCY) and requires the collaboration of ministries at the local and central levels, namely the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Public Health, and the Ministry of Finance.

In UNICEF's 2020 "Thailand Child Support Grant (CSG) Impact Assessment Endline Report," the CSG was found to have a positive impact on Thailand's young kids.

Notable Impacts

UNICEF's evaluation has shown that the CSG reduced acute malnutrition among children, which was shown by a lower incidence of wasting in very poor households.

The CSG has likewise improved the breastfeeding practices of mothers, with its prevalence going up in poor households.

"[T]he grant allows new mothers to stay at home for longer before returning to work. The money is used to pay for better health care as well as developmental resources such as books and toys," UNICEF wrote.

Lastly, the grant has helped lower the stress and improve the power dynamics in the households, namely "women's decision-making power."

Misses

As for its downs, UNICEF said in its report that about 30% of children eligible for the CSG are not receiving theirs due to "inadequate training of implementers, complex targeting processes and poor communication of eligibility rules."

The report also identified an "inclusion error" in the programme, wherein a couple of households were given the CSG even though their income is above the required threshold.

The government is currently in the process of expanding the CSG.

" The report reveals an urgent need to overcome the implementation barriers resulting from inadequate interdepartmental and interministerial coordination. It calls on the Government of Thailand to pursue training and capacity building for local-level implementers and to build a cadre of officials with the knowledge to support programme implementation," UNICEF said in its report.

As its current steps, UNICEF is generating evidence for "policy implementation" to reduce the number of errors among the grant's beneficiaries.