Amidst Sri Lanka’s worst economic crisis, catalyzed by soaring inflation and diminished real income, the discourse surrounding social protection has emerged as key for improving the lives of 31% of the Sri Lankan population living in poverty (as of 2023), which includes an additional 4 million people since 2019. The new social security scheme Aswesuma, funded by the World Bank was intended to create a poverty free, entrepreneurial Sri Lanka by 2048. The Welfare Benefits Board of Sri Lanka that also receives funding from the World Bank to carry out Aswesuma, began an enumeration exercise in 2023 whereby all those who applied to receive welfare benefits were scored across a 22 indicator list (many of them asset based) to determine their eligibility. The verification process of the targeted benefits scheme failed to identify reportedly even the most explicit forms of poverty as its approach was framed by a uniform assumption about the experience of poverty devoid of a critical analysis about the factors affecting poverty.