Social Security in Thailand (2026): What You Pay & Get

Last verified: September 2026

If you've ever looked at your Thai payslip and wondered what that 5% "social security" line actually buys you — or you're weighing whether it's worth staying enrolled after a work permit ends — this guide covers what changed in January 2026, what you and your employer actually pay, and what each of the seven benefits actually pays out. It's written foreigner-first, since Section 33 covers employees on a work permit exactly the same way it covers Thai nationals, with no separate foreigner track.

What changed in January 2026

For more than 30 years, the monthly wage used to calculate Social Security contributions was capped at ฿15,000 — meaning the most anyone ever paid, or their employer matched, was ฿750 a month, no matter how much more they actually earned. Effective 1 January 2026, per a Royal Gazette notice published 12 December 2025, that ceiling rose to ฿17,500. The maximum contribution is now ฿875 a month each for employee and employer — 5% each, same rate as before, just applied to a higher ceiling.

It's the first of three steps, all fixed in the same Ministerial Regulation: a ฿17,500 ceiling and ฿875 maximum contribution from 1 January 2026 to 31 December 2028; ฿20,000 and ฿1,000 from 1 January 2029 to 31 December 2031; and ฿23,000 and ฿1,150 from 1 January 2032 onward. The 5% rate and the ฿1,650 floor don't change at any step — only the ceiling moves. So treat ฿17,500 as the figure for the next three years, not a permanent one.

Source: Ministerial Regulation on the minimum and maximum wage base for Section 33 contributions, B.E. 2568 (Royal Gazette, 12 December 2025 — PDF, Thai), hosted by the Social Security Office.

Benefits rose with the ceiling, not just the contribution. The monthly wage base used to calculate sickness, disability, and unemployment payouts went from ฿7,500 to ฿8,750. The 90-day maternity-leave cash benefit rose from ฿22,500 to ฿26,250 (the childbirth lump sum itself is a flat ฿15,000 — see the maternity section below). The death lump sum rose from ฿90,000 to ฿105,000. One honest note, in the spirit of keeping this page actually current: plenty of guides and forum posts online still quote the old ฿750 contribution figure, because it was correct for over three decades and nobody's gone back to update them. If you're reading ฿750 anywhere else in 2026, that source is out of date.

Are you covered?

Most foreigners working in Thailand are covered without ever having opted in. Section 33 is the standard employee scheme: automatic, mandatory enrollment for anyone working for a Thai-registered employer with one or more staff — nationality doesn't matter, and a valid work permit is exactly what makes you eligible, not an exception to it. If you've seen a 5% deduction on your payslip next to something like "SSO" or "ประกันสังคม," that line is Section 33 in action; there's no separate step to opt in.

Moving between two Thai employers doesn't reset any of this — your Section 33 enrollment carries over, typically with a short administrative gap while the new employer registers the change. That's a different situation from leaving employment entirely, which is where Section 39 comes in.

Section 39 is for people who leave that job and want to keep their coverage going voluntarily — common for someone between employers, or leaving formal employment but staying in Thailand. It costs a flat ฿432 a month and keeps most benefits active, with one notable exception covered in the unemployment section below.

Section 40 exists for self-employed people and informal workers, structured as a menu of voluntary contribution tiers rather than one fixed scheme. It's a real option if you're self-employed in Thailand, but the tier structure is its own topic — worth a dedicated guide rather than a few lines here.

What you pay (and what your employer pays)

The contribution is 5% of your monthly wage, matched by an equal 5% from your employer — 10% total funding each month, split evenly between you. That 5% only applies within a wage band: a floor of ฿1,650 and, since January 2026, a ceiling of ฿17,500. Earn more than the ceiling and the extra isn't touched by this calculation at all — your contribution stops growing once your wage crosses ฿17,500.

Worked example: at ฿17,500 a month or higher, 5% of the capped wage is ฿875 — your contribution is ฿875, your employer matches it with another ฿875, for ฿1,750 total funding that month. Below the ceiling, it scales normally: a ฿10,000 monthly wage means a ฿500 contribution each side. Run your own number through our Social Security Calculator rather than doing the arithmetic by hand — it applies the current cap automatically.

That 5% also does double duty on your income tax return: it's one of the deductions that reduces your taxable income before the tax brackets apply, alongside your personal allowance. See our Thai Income Tax for Foreigners guide for the fuller picture of how a paycheck actually turns into what lands in your account, worked example included — or check your own take-home directly with the Net Salary Calculator.

The seven benefits, what you actually get

Section 33 coverage funds seven categories of benefit. Here's what each actually is, when you qualify, and what it pays — not just that it exists.

Sickness. Free treatment at your registered hospital, plus a cash benefit while a doctor has you off work: 50% of your wage, for up to 90 days per illness and 180 days per year (365 days a year for a chronic condition the SSO recognises). Wage here means your capped contribution wage, so at the 2026 ceiling the benefit tops out at ฿8,750 a month — roughly ฿291 a day, or ฿52,500 across a full 180-day year. Your treatment hospital is assigned when you enroll, and it's changeable once a year during an open enrollment window — worth knowing if you move cities or just want a different hospital.

Source: Sickness and non-work-related injury benefits (Thai) — Social Security Office.

Maternity. Three separate pieces, and they're easy to mix up. First, a childbirth lump sum of ฿15,000 per delivery, claimable by either insured parent — one claim per birth, so if you're both insured only one of you claims — provided the claimant has contributed for at least 5 of the 15 months before the birth month. Second, for a female insured person only, a maternity-leave cash benefit of 50% of average wage for 90 days; at the 2026 ceiling that's the ฿26,250 figure you'll often see quoted as "the maternity benefit", and it's payable for a maximum of two births (a third still gets the ฿15,000 lump sum, not the 90-day cash). Third, prenatal check-ups reimbursed at cost, up to ฿1,500 across five visits. An earlier version of this guide labelled ฿26,250 as the childbirth benefit — it's the 90-day leave payment; the childbirth lump sum is ฿15,000.

Source: Childbirth benefits (Thai) — Social Security Office.

Disability. Split by severity. Partial or moderate disability pays 30% of the monthly wage base for up to 180 months. Severe disability pays 50% of the wage base for life — not capped at 180 months like the partial tier.

Death. A lump sum of ฿105,000 paid to the insured's designated beneficiaries, plus a separate funeral grant.

Child allowance. ฿1,000 a month per child, for up to three children at a time, from birth until the child turns 6, once you've contributed for 12 months within the prior 36. The amount rose from ฿800 on 1 January 2025, so older sources still quote ฿800 — and the age limit is 6, not 15 as some summaries (including an earlier version of this guide) state.

Source: Child allowance benefits (Thai) — Social Security Office.

Old-age pension. Covered in its own section below — it's the benefit most worth understanding in detail, especially if you're weighing whether years of Thai contributions are worth anything once you eventually leave.

Unemployment. Also covered in its own section below, since it comes with the single most expensive mistake people make with this scheme.

Every one of these is funded by the contribution described above — run your own number through the Social Security Calculator to see exactly what you and your employer are putting toward this list every month.

Unemployment: the 30-day trap

Unemployment benefits are a Section 33-only benefit — Section 39 continuation doesn't carry this one over, which is exactly why losing a job and immediately switching to Section 39 to "keep everything going" doesn't actually keep everything going.

The payout depends on how the job ended. Resign, and you're covered for 30% of your wage for up to 90 days. Get laid off or terminated, and it's 50% of your wage for up to 180 days — both based on the same wage-base calculation used elsewhere in the scheme. Either way, you need at least 6 months of contributions within the 15 months before the claim to qualify at all.

Here's the detail that actually costs people money: you must register as unemployed with the Employment Department within 30 days of your last working day. Miss that window and you risk losing the claim entirely, regardless of how many years you'd contributed before that point. This isn't a soft deadline or a formality — treat day 30 as a hard cutoff, not a guideline, and register as early as you reasonably can rather than waiting to see if you find a new job first.

If your job ends through termination rather than resignation, severance pay is a separate, additive entitlement under labor law — not something this scheme pays. See our Severance Pay in Thailand guide for the statutory tiers; the two systems — severance from your employer, unemployment benefit from the SSO — apply at the same moment but come from entirely different sources with entirely different rules and entirely different deadlines.

The pension — and the foreigner question

The old-age pension is where Social Security stops being a payroll line and starts being a real retirement number, assuming you qualify for it.

From age 55, with at least 180 months (15 years) of contributions, you're entitled to a monthly pension: 20% of your average wage over your final 60 months of contributions, plus an extra 1.5% for every additional year of contributions beyond 15. Worked example: someone retiring with a final-60-month average wage of ฿17,500 and 25 years of contributions gets a base 20% (฿3,500) plus 10 extra years × 1.5% (15%), for 35% of ฿17,500 — a monthly pension of ฿6,125. If that pensioner dies within 5 years of the pension starting, their next of kin receive a lump sum equal to 10 times the monthly pension — ฿61,250 in this example.

Under 180 months of contributions, there's no pension — you get a lump-sum payout instead, calculated from your actual contribution history rather than the percentage formula above.

Now the question foreigners actually ask: if I leave Thailand for good, do I get any of this back? The rules are settled and don't distinguish by nationality. Once you've turned 55 and your insured status has ended, what you get depends on your contribution months. Under 180 months you get a lump sum (บำเหน็จชราภาพ): if you contributed for 12 months or more, that's your own contributions plus your employer's, plus the returns the SSO declares on them; under 12 months, your own contributions only. At 180 months or more you get the monthly pension instead, not a lump sum. Either way the SSO pays in Thailand — into a Thai bank account or PromptPay linked to your ID, or in person at an SSO office — there's no overseas remittance, so keep a Thai account open or plan to settle up before you close it. The one point secondary sources don't state consistently is whether a foreigner leaving Thailand permanently before 55 can claim the lump sum early rather than waiting until 55. Confirm that one with the SSO before you leave; the rest of the rules above you can rely on.

Source: Old-age benefit criteria and conditions (Thai) — Social Security Office.

Frequently asked questions

Is Social Security mandatory for foreigners with a work permit? Yes. Section 33 enrollment is automatic and mandatory for any employee — Thai or foreign — working for a Thai-registered employer with one or more staff. A work permit doesn't create an exception; it's part of what makes you eligible.

Can I keep my benefits after leaving my job? Yes, through Section 39 continuation, for a flat ฿432 a month. It keeps most benefits active, but not unemployment coverage — that one is Section 33 only, and doesn't carry over.

Do I get anything back if I leave Thailand for good? Yes, once you're 55 and no longer insured. With under 180 months of contributions you get a lump sum of your own and your employer's contributions plus returns (your own share only if you contributed for under 12 months); with 180 months or more you get the monthly pension. It's paid in Thailand, so keep a Thai bank account. Whether you can claim the lump sum early if you leave before 55 is the one point to confirm with the SSO directly.

Does my spouse get covered too? Coverage is per insured person, not per household — your spouse would need their own qualifying employment and contributions to be covered under Section 33 themselves. The ฿15,000 childbirth lump sum can be claimed by either insured spouse (one claim per birth), but the 90-day maternity cash benefit is for a female insured person only, and the child allowance is paid to the insured parent.

Why did my payslip deduction go up in 2026? The contribution wage ceiling rose from ฿15,000 to ฿17,500 on 1 January 2026, so the maximum 5% contribution rose from ฿750 to ฿875 a month. If your wage is above the new ceiling, you're now paying the new maximum; if you're well under it, your contribution hasn't changed at all.

Before you rely on any figure above for a real claim or a payroll decision, run the numbers that actually matter to you through the Social Security Calculator — it's kept current with the 2026 ceiling, which is more than can be said for a lot of what's already indexed on this topic.

---

This guide is informational, not official SSO guidance. Benefit claims, eligibility, and payout amounts are ultimately determined by the Social Security Office — confirm current rules at sso.go.th or your local SSO area office before relying on any figure here for a real claim.