‘Aswesuma’ welfare scheme to be rolled out from July

• Finance Ministry says 2 million households across the country will receive relief 

The newly approved consolidated welfare scheme, ‘Aswesuma’ will be rolled out from next month where 2 million families across the island will receive relief from the ongoing economic crisis, the Ministry of Finance announced yesterday.
The plan, as announced by President Ranil Wickremesinghe in April, is to implement the scheme by July 1 this year. 
According to State Minister of Finance Ranjith Siyambalapitiya, via the welfare scheme, the government hopes to uplift 8 million people out of poverty. Addressing journalists in Kegalle, the state minister shared that the scheme estimates a family to have four members, thus will benefit approximately 36 percent of the total population.

Those seeking relief were required to register for the scheme, last year. To-date, a total of 3.7 million applications has been received for the welfare scheme.
In an effort to learn from the mistakes from the Samurdhi welfare scheme, where even those outside the vulnerable segment received assistance, the Ministry of Finance said it has stepped up efforts in verifying the beneficiaries, and the process has reached 95 percent completion.
Meanwhile, the State Minister of Finance Shehan Semasinghe took to Twitter yesterday to share that dates would be notified to submit objections to the names included in the list of those eligible for the scheme or claims to be included to conduct an inquiry.

Under the Aswesuma scheme, 400,000 transitional beneficiaries will receive Rs.2,500.00 per month until December 31, 2023; 400,000 vulnerable beneficiaries will receive Rs.5,000.00 per month until March 31, 2024; 800,000 poor beneficiaries will receive Rs.8,500.00 per month, and the extremely poor will receive Rs.15,000.00 per month for three years from the 
starting date.
A nationally representative survey carried out by regional think tank LIRNEasia indicated that about 7 million Sri Lankans are living in poverty, which translates into 2 million families and 1.6 million households. Since 2019, 17 percent of the population has fallen into poverty.

Existing social assistance programmes have failed to reach the poorest in society where only 31 percent of the poorest tenth of households receive Samurdhi.
When compared with 2019, in 2023, the urban population falling into poverty increased to 18 percent from 6 percent, the rural population in poverty increased to 32 percent from 15 percent, and the estate sector saw a staggering 51 percent of its population plunge into poverty, a 1.5 fold increase from the 34 percent before the Covid-19 pandemic struck.