Welfare pension distribution in Kerala: Thomas Isaac seeks to roll back DBT decision
Kerala Finance Minister T.M. Thomas Isaac on Saturday (August 8, 2026) demanded immediate roll-back of the United Democratic Front (UDF) government’s decision to shift welfare
Kerala Finance Minister T.M. Thomas Isaac on Saturday (August 8, 2026) demanded immediate roll-back of the United Democratic Front (UDF) government’s decision to shift welfare pension distribution fully to direct benefit transfer (DBT) mode. Dr. Isaac said that direct-to-home (DTH) distribution was chosen as an option as many of the pensioners had requested it. Addressing a press conference, Dr. Isaac said that around 23 lakh beneficiaries had opted for the DTH mode so that they could get their monthly pension distributed to their homes via cooperative sector institutions.
When the Union government insisted on DBT for the payment of its share of the social security pensions, the previous Left Democratic Front (LDF) government had opted for that mode for 8 lakh beneficiaries who received a Central share in their payments. For the remaining beneficiaries, the pensions were either paid into their bank accounts via DBT or distributed to their homes depending on their choice, he said.
‘Baseless argument’ Now, the V.D. Satheesan government is upsetting this arrangement without even consulting the beneficiaries. The argument in the State government order that Kerala stood to lose Central financial assistance if the DBT was not implemented is baseless, Dr. Isaac alleged. The UDF government should urgently make public the Central government order in this regard, he said. Further, the exemption for bedridden patients from mandatory DBT does not end the problem, he said.
How can the government justify the denial of service to a beneficiary, who is not bedridden, who wants the pension distributed to his/her home, he asked. Problems in the distribution by cooperative sector institutions, if any, should be resolved through discussion, Dr. Isaac said.
The BriefWire