The Welfare Benefits Board announced that the accepting applications for the program to identify people who are eligible to receive welfare benefit payments, implemented under the theme “Leave No One Behind”, ended yesterday (Oct. 28).

According to the Welfare Benefits Board, the details of 2.4 million applicants who had applied for state welfare benefits are currently registered in the Welfare Benefits Data System.

The information of around 70% of the target community has been fed into the system, the remaining 30% of the applications have been filed in the Divisional Secretariat Offices, and all the Divisional Secretaries are currently working to feed them into the system as soon as possible.

The Welfare Benefits Board stated that the second phase of the program, which is the information census to be conducted at the homes of the applicants, is scheduled to commence in November.

The program was initiated on the directives of President Ranil Wickremesinghe.

The registration application forms were published on August 30, 2022, and the number of applications entered into the data system stood at 100,000 by September 29, 2022.

The closing date for the acceptance of the applications was initially supposed to end on October 15, however, it was later extended to October 28.