การกู้เงินของผู้สูงอายุจากกองทุนผู้สูงอายุเพื่อประกอบอาชีพในจังหวัดพะเยา

Abstract

The study aims to explore the elderly’s loans from the elderly fund for occupations in Phayao Province with three main objectives. To start with, this research examines the factors underlying the loans of the elderly. Secondly, it investigates the change in the elderly’s income after the loan approval. Lastly, the study scrutinizes the saving behavior of the elderly who live in Phayao Province and have been granted the elderly fund’s loan. The research implemented both quantitative and qualitative methods to examine 285 samples out of the 1,448 population by employing questionnaire as a means of collecting data for further arithmetic analysis. The findings indicated that the samples who were given the loan were mostly married men aged between 60 to 69 years old. Most of whom lived with spouses and earned their livelihood from trading and farming. The reasons associated with applying for the loan involved two main causes: career development and daily spendings. Furthermore, the factors affecting the elderly’s loans in Phayao Province consisted of age, educational level, the need for capital, living condition, and the government’s policy to support the elderly’s occupations. In terms of income change, most of the samples had the range of income between 15,001 – 25,000 baht prior to the loan or on average 19,330 baht per month. After the loan being approved, nevertheless, their average income decreased by 1.84 percent to 18,975 baht a month. As for saving behavior, 42.81 percent of the samples had money left for savings prior to the loan, which were equal to 122 out of 285 people. In this condition, they had 2,022 baht on average left per month to be kept in the savings account, but the actual amount of money saved varied from 901 – 1,500 baht a month. After a successful provision of the loan, however, the number of samples having money left for savings following all expenses shrank by 16.39 percent to 37.79 percent or 102 samples. Correspondingly, the amount of money left for savings dropped to 1,410 baht on average with the actual savings being less than or equal to 900 baht, contracting by 7.30 percent. It therefore can be concluded that the loans from the elderly fund for occupation engendered a reduction in their income, which subsequently had an impact upon the amount of savings. Hence, while supporting the elderly’s occupations, the government is supposed to educate them about how to improve their professional skills as well as how to invest in career development . The elderly fund’s key performance indicator, moreover, ought to reduce the number of loanees as opposed to increasing it. Further study, in addition, should focus on outstanding debts and how the elderly, who have already cleared themselves of debts, invest in career development.