Many complaints have been filed by self-employed social security members as well as regular hired employees, claiming they were unfairly deprived of their benefits for missing just a few payments. The cases number about 200,000 and these people were left with only the old-age pension to be paid to them according to the number of years they had made contributions, SSO secretary-general Pairoj Suksamrit said.

Last year, 50,000 members were excluded from benefits as punishment, causing the Social Security Fund's budget to suffer a shortfall of about Bt259.2 million, he said.

Since the SSO actually lost a lot of money by barring benefits to these people, a law to bring them back into the system and restore their entitlements to the full menu of seven benefits is now being drafted, Pairoj said.

The regulation should be ready for submission to the new Parliament and passed in time for the celebrations of His Majesty the King's 80th birthday next year, he said.

The SSO also wants to extend coverage to nine million members' spouses and children for two benefits - healthcare and disability. Experts are studying the plan and calculating the additional rate to be charged. If the SSO did not require higher contributions, the Social Security Fund would go bankrupt in five years, he said.

The beneficiary expansion should be announced as a ministerial regulation for implementation in December.

Wilaiwan Saetia, president of the Thai Labour Reconciliation Committee, said the pardon was a good idea and workers wanted the SSO to implement it right away. Otherwise caretaker Labour Minister Somsak Thepsuthin might use the scheme to persuade voters to return the Thai Rak Thai Party so the amnesty would be materialised, she said.

She also urged the SSO to extend the cut-off period from three to 12 months.