The Aswesuma Welfare Benefits Board has announced that the April installment of the elderly allowance will be credited to beneficiaries’ bank accounts on Wednesday, April 22.
A total of 689,931 individuals are eligible to receive payments under the current phase, with more than Rs. 3.447 billion released to banks for disbursement, the Board said on Monday.
According to figures provided to Newswire, the disbursement is split across two phases serving recipients aged 70 and above. Phase 1 will distribute Rs. 3.087 billion to 617,406 beneficiaries, while Phase 2 covers 72,525 beneficiaries with an allocation of Rs. 362.6 million.
The Board did not detail why the payment structure retains two distinct phases. The Aswesuma programme was relaunched in July 2025 following a beneficiary survey and re-verification exercise. Elderly recipients have received separate disbursements at post offices in earlier cycles, including an April 9-11 counter payment round.
Aswesuma is the government’s flagship means-tested cash transfer programme targeting poor, vulnerable, elderly, disabled and kidney-disease-affected households. The programme has faced funding pressure amid Cyclone Ditwah reconstruction demands and the broader fiscal squeeze from the Middle East energy shock.
