Sri Lanka updates welfare data for broader social protection roll-out

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By Editor_1
 A man counts money at a marketplace in Colombo, Sri Lanka, October 21, 2022. This month, the United Nations renewed a humanitarian appeal, stating that 28% of the population faces food insecurity and that the poverty rate this year has doubled -Eranga Jayawardena/AP/File

COLOMBO – Sri Lanka has completed 50% of its nationwide census to update its social safety net registry, aiming to transition from a single temporary relief scheme into a comprehensive, system-driven social protection framework, officials said.

The Welfare Benefits Board (WBB) has deployed over 12,500 trained government census officers across all 25 districts, covering 340 Divisional Secretariat divisions to clean up the existing data.

Chairman of the Welfare Benefits Board, Nimal Kotawalagedara, said that the legal requirement for annual updates had faced prior delays, prompting the current data drive which commenced in November 2025.

“Aswesuma is just one program. However, what we need is to launch a comprehensive social protection program within this country,” Kotawalagedara said.

The initial 2023 Aswesuma rollout selected 1.6 million beneficiaries from a pool of nearly 3 million registered applicants. However, systemic issues and data inaccuracies from the inception year forced a total re-evaluation to ensure transparency and eliminate political interference.

The ongoing census has already processed over 1.5 million of the 3.12 million applications received nationwide by late June 2026, with the highest concentration of applicants recorded in the Kurunegala, Gampaha, and Ratnapura districts.

WBB Assistant Commissioner Ashan Darshaka explained that the welfare model was designed to respond dynamically to changing economic realities rather than serving as permanent entitlements. Payments for the fourth tier, the ‘Transitional’ group, were discontinued in April 2025, while the third tier, the ‘Vulnerable’ group comprising 425,000 individuals, had their extended payments concluded this month.

Addressing concerns regarding the sudden exclusion of these beneficiaries, Darshaka noted that the data update provides a mechanism to re-evaluate families whose financial status deteriorated over the last two years.

“This changes over time and it is not a benefit given for a lifetime,” Darshaka said.

According to the board, only the bottom two tiers – the “Poor” and “Extremely Poor” – will continue to receive guaranteed monthly welfare allocations through to June 2027. Displaced beneficiaries from the transitional and vulnerable categories who still require state assistance must rely on the updated system to re-verify their poverty status and qualify under the stricter criteria.

The data integration process is expected to conclude swiftly, allowing the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development to structurally shift Sri Lanka’s welfare model from ad-hoc crisis cash transfers to an objective, systemized safety net.

-economynext.com

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