xxvi | รายงานวิจัยฉบับสมบูรณ์ (Final Report) (3) Lack of income criteria to qualify for the social welfare: No poverty threshold or minimum income threshold available as a criteria to select the qualified persons for social welfare programs. The criteria can reduce the discretion power of the government officials. (4) Lack of front-line operation units to protect the rights of older persons: Most of policy makers and implementation are from the central administration and there are no front-line offices lower than the district levels. In order to operate the programs in the village level, the cooperation between the central administration and the local administrative organizations is the key. (5) Lack of participation from all sectors: Lack of participation from both in the civil sector such as NPOs and private sector. There is no social enterprises to provide services to the older persons at home. The participation by the family members may lead to the abuse of the frail older persons since it is very stressful for the family members in balancing their work and care for the family. For the care givers, most of them work as volunteers or they receive a very low pay. They also need better economic incentive to work for living. (6) Lack of policies and laws that are aging friendly: Existing laws or regulations concern mainly the indoor environment, not the outdoor, such as city planning appropriate for the safety living and transportation for the older persons. (7) Bias attitude towards older persons: there exists the prejudice against aging both from the older persons themselves and their surrounding people. Older persons perceive or are perceived as “burden” than “assets”. The protection of the rights of older persons from discrimination is resulted in the form of social welfare since they are a vulnerable group of people due to poverty or neglect that need to be protected. 7) Suggestion to solve the problems of discrimination on age: the economic and social dimension (1) By laws: 1. To reform or amend the laws and regulations to ensure the rights of the older persons to employment and to social security stated under the National Older Persons Act. The social security system should be reformed to cover those working in both the formal and informal employment systems as well as those who are self-employed. The Ministry of Labor should be the main active agent to provide the employment opportunity for the older persons. The Ministry of Finance should be another main active agent to reform the social security system by amending or reforming the existing various funds related to the older persons under different ministries, e.g. the Elderly Fund under the National Older Persons