The number of beneficiaries receiving assistance under Sri Lanka’s Aswesuma welfare programme has fallen to 1,251,522 as of August 2026, Labour Minister and Deputy Minister of Finance and Planning Dr. Anil Jayantha Fernando told Parliament yesterday.
Responding to a question raised by Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa, the Deputy Minister said the figure had declined from 2,439,917 beneficiaries recorded in 2025, mainly due to the phased conclusion of certain beneficiary categories and the ongoing re-verification process.
Dr. Anil Jayantha stressed that the reduction was not an arbitrary decision, noting that the Welfare Benefits Act governing the Aswesuma programme requires beneficiaries to be regularly reassessed.
He said applications received under the first and second phases of the Aswesuma Welfare Benefit Scheme are currently undergoing an official re-verification process based on 22 socio-economic criteria. Around 90% of the process has been completed, with full completion expected by the end of September.
The Deputy Minister said the programme was launched in 2023 with 1,773,445 beneficiaries, while the number stood at 1,761,116 by December 2024. The beneficiary count subsequently increased to 2,439,917 in 2025 before falling to 1,251,522 by August 2026.
When Aswesuma was initially introduced, benefits were provided under four categories: “extremely poor,” “poor,” “vulnerable” and “transitional.”
Payments to the transitional category ended in December 2025, while benefits for the vulnerable category were discontinued in June 2026. The Government is now providing benefits only to those classified as extremely poor and poor, pending completion of the reassessment.
Dr. Anil Jayantha said the original monthly allowances were Rs. 15,000 for the extremely poor category, Rs. 8,500 for the poor category, Rs. 5,000 for the vulnerable category and Rs. 2,500 for the transitional category.
Following a Gazette notification issued on December 15, 2025, the monthly allowance for the extremely poor category was increased to Rs. 17,500, while the allowance for the poor category was increased to Rs. 10,000. The transitional category allowance was also increased to Rs. 5,000 before the category was phased out.
He explained that the original framework had scheduled the transitional category to end in 2024, but amendments subsequently extended it until December 2025. The vulnerable category was then phased out in June 2026.
“According to the original schedule, the remaining two categories will continue until June 2027. In the meantime, the re-survey will determine the final number of eligible beneficiaries, which currently stands at around 1.2 million,” he said.
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