Under the FY24-25 social safety net programme of Bangladesh, the pension for retired government employees and savings scheme interest payments account for nearly the same allocation as social assistance for the poor, the old and the disaster-struck.

The social assistance programme, which covers myriad cash transfers for 54 types of vulnerable target populations, including senior citizens, was allocated Tk 49,871.65 crore.

Specifically, cash assistance in the form of old age allowance was allocated only Tk 4,350.97 crore, with widows getting a further Tk 1,844.32 crore.

The poor signed up with the National Pension Authority were allocated another Tk 150 crore.

In comparison, government retiree pensions were allocated Tk 36,580 crore and savings scheme interest payments were allocated a further Tk 8,828.32 crores.

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Don’t shrink social safety net even during austerity

This year, the allocation for the social safety net programme rose to Tk 1,36,026 crore from Tk 1,26,272 crore in FY 2023-24.

The Tk 9,754 crore increase makes the social safety net account for 17.06 percent of the national budget, as per the finance ministers' speech.

However, if pensions and savings scheme interests are excluded from the programme's budget, its share in the national budget gets yanked down to roughly 11 percent.

"This increment reflects a substantial commitment to enhancing social protection programmes across various vulnerable groups," said Finance Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali in his inaugural budget speech in parliament yesterday.

Another 2 lakh more senior citizens will be given Tk 600 per month this year, raising the number of beneficiaries from 58.01 lakh to 60.01 lakh. In addition, the number of widows and abandoned women beneficiaries will rise from 25.75 lakh to 27.75 lakh.

However, the Centre for Policy Dialogue in a research last year found that an estimated 33 lakh old people and 25 lakh widows eligible for assistance were not covered by the programme, showing just how many more beneficiaries require coverage not afforded by the paltry rise this year.

According to the FY24-25 budget, the number of disability allowance recipients will increase from 29 lakh to 32.34 lakh, while the stipend for students with disabilities will rise from Tk 950 to Tk 1,050 at the higher secondary level.

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Don't mislead the public with inflated social safety funds

Meanwhile, the number of beneficiaries under the mother and child support programme increased by over a lakh this year to 16.55 lakh.

Currently, 6,880 individuals from the Hijra community receive allowances and this will increase to 12,629 beneficiaries.

However, in spite of these rises, the proportion of the social safety net programme as a percentage of the gross domestic product dipped from last year's 2.55 percent to 2.43 percent in FY24-25.

If government employee pensions and savings scheme interest payments are discounted from the programme, the share further dips down to being 1.62 percent of the GDP

This falls short of the National Social Security strategy's aim to have the programme's budget be three percent of the GDP.