Under the programme, the government covers 60% of eligible purchases while participants contribute 40%, with each registrant entitled to 4,000 baht in benefits. Registration is handled through the Paotang mobile application, and it is technical difficulties with the app that have driven many residents to seek help in person at bank branches.
At the Mae Rim district branch of Krungthai Bank, visitors arrived from early morning through the afternoon seeking assistance with issues including failed facial recognition scans, forgotten passwords, phone number changes and identity verification failures. A number of newly participating vendors — those who did not take part in the previous Khon La Khrueng scheme — also came to register their businesses. While the branch remained busy throughout the day, staff noted that the queue was more orderly than the previous day, with most visitors collecting numbered tickets and waiting inside rather than spilling out onto the pavement.
Bank staff observed that the majority of those seeking help were aged 50 and above, many of whom are unfamiliar with smartphone technology and brought their devices to the counter for staff to install the Paotang app and complete the registration process on their behalf.
Among those who made the trip was a grandmother from Mae Rim who came to reset her forgotten Paotang password after failing to register on her own. She described the scheme as genuinely useful for lower income families, saying even a modest reduction in household expenses makes a difference.
Another elderly woman travelled over 75 kilometres from Samoeng district, choosing the Mae Rim branch because her local branch was even more crowded. She left home at 4am, arriving around 6am to queue before the branch opened. Registering for the first time, she handed her smartphone to bank staff to have the app installed and her identity verified. She said she was delighted to have secured her 4,000 baht entitlement and planned to spend it on household necessities — but urged the government to simplify the process, noting that the current steps are too complex for older residents who are not comfortable with modern technology.
