May elders' allowance available at post offices from Monday June 15

The May elders’ allowance will be available for collection through post offices from Monday, June 15, the National Secretariat for Elders said, confirming a two-track payment system continues to operate in parallel through the Welfare Benefits Board.

National Secretariat for Elders Director Chathura Mihidum said the allowance is now disbursed in two ways, NewsFirst reported. Elders living in families that receive Aswasuma benefits from the Welfare Benefits Board are paid through their household Aswasuma bank accounts, with the May payment under that channel processed on May 29. Elders from low-income families who do not have Aswasuma accounts — or whose payments are currently withheld because of account discrepancies — are paid through post offices on the 15th of every month.

The bank/post-office split confirms that the planned transition to a fully digital welfare payment route has not eliminated the post-office leg, and that the Secretariat continues to operate a manual cash-handout option each month for the residual cohort outside the Welfare Benefits Board’s database. Mihidum said the Secretariat has taken steps to promptly include these elders in the WBB database and to move them onto the Aswasuma bank-payment channel.

The arrangement extends the dual-track regime first signalled around the April Avurudu payments through post offices, which the Secretariat at the time framed as a temporary bridge ahead of an exclusive bank-account regime due to take effect from June 2026. The June 15 post-office payments indicate the bridging arrangement has been extended for households the WBB has yet to onboard.

Aswasuma is Sri Lanka’s flagship cash-transfer programme for low-income households and is the channel through which most state allowance flows now run. The post-office route remains in place for elders without an Aswasuma-linked household account, ensuring the monthly stipend continues to reach beneficiaries while the database migration progresses.

Source: Elders’ Allowance Available Through Post Offices From Next Monday — NewsFirst, June 13.