Democrat MP says allowance cuts hurt deep South police and families

Democrat MP for Songkhla Churee Noomkaew has urged Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul to look after junior police officers serving in three southernmost provinces and four districts of Songkhla after the Royal Thai Police decided to cut their allowances for the 2027 fiscal year.

Churee said yesterday many of the junior officers came from northern and northeastern provinces but had been assigned to Yala, Narathiwat, Pattani and four districts of Songkhla, where they face significantly greater risks while on duty.

He said the officers had approached him with complaints because they did not know whom to contact to raise their concerns.

“A monthly allowance of 1,000-2,000 baht may not seem like much, but for many officers from ordinary families, it means a great deal. It helps pay for their children’s milk, their parents’ food and other necessities,” Churee said.

The Democrat MP said the state should take proper care of junior officers while they were alive and serving in the restive southern provinces, rather than waiting until they died to provide compensation or rewards to their families.

The allowance cuts, which took effect on October 1, have drawn widespread criticism and complaints.

One police officer said the reductions were not due to insufficient budget allocations but rather to what the officer described as an unfair set of spending priorities.