The September round of Aswesuma welfare payments will reach beneficiaries’ bank accounts on Wednesday, the Welfare Benefits Board has said.
Rs. 9,181,696,250 — just over Rs. 9.18 billion — will be credited to 999,053 beneficiary families under the first phase of the scheme on the 16th, Hiru News reported. A further 213,335 families covered by the second phase will be paid the following day.
Two payment days, not one
That split is a change from the previous round. In August the Board credited both phases on the same day, 19 August. This month the two phases fall on consecutive days, with second-phase households waiting until the 17th. The Board gave no reason for the change.
Where the numbers sit against August
The first-phase figures are marginally down month on month. August covered 999,502 first-phase families with more than Rs. 9.24 billion; September covers 999,053 families — 449 fewer — with Rs. 9.18 billion. That works out at an average of about Rs. 9,190 per first-phase family, against roughly Rs. 9,245 in August.
Second-phase coverage moved the other way, rising from 212,955 families in August to 213,335 this month. Hiru does not give a rupee total for the second phase, so the full September disbursement cannot be calculated from this report. For scale, the August round totalled Rs. 11.56 billion across both phases and July’s totalled Rs. 11.83 billion.
Month-to-month movement of a few hundred households in either direction is routine as families move on and off the register.
Aswesuma is the government’s principal social safety net, replacing the former Samurdhi scheme with means-tested monthly transfers. Payments resumed in phases this year after a beneficiary verification survey intended to remove ineligible recipients, and the Board has pursued several fraud cases during the year, including action against 14 officials in August.
Not reported
Hiru does not give the second phase’s rupee allocation, the combined September total, or a breakdown by beneficiary category. It does not say from what time on each day the funds become accessible, name the Board official making the announcement, or explain why the two phases have been separated onto different days this month.
