Income Security for the Elderly in Thailand 【Review】

In this paper, I discuss the concept and types of scheme used to generate income security for theelderly, its sensitivity to demographic and economic changes, the nature of pension reforms in LatinAmerican and the income security for the elderly in Thailand. Currently, the formal income securitysystem for the elderly in Thailand consisted of 3 schemes: the pension scheme for government officials,provident fund and pension for non-agricultural private employees. Problems in each scheme were dis-cussed and recommended changes were suggested. In 2001, these formal schemes covered about 250f the working population and only 71023364310f them were covered by more than one scheme. Hence exten-sion of the formal system to covered more working population is essential; and two approaches toexpand the coverage were suggested. However strategies beyond pension and provident fund such asproviding more working opportunity for the elderly, encouraging support from family and communityand improving the procedure to reach the poor elderly can not be overlooked.