SAnews.gov.za

Government's social assistance reaches 17 million

Cape Town – Government’s Social Assistance Programme now reaches almost 17 million South Africans, says Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini.

Delivering the department’s Budget Vote Speech in Parliament, on Wednesday, Minister Dlamini said more than two thirds of all social grant recipients are children who receive the Child Support Grant (CSG). 

“Over three million older persons receive the Old Age Grant while a million people receive the disability grant,” the Minister said.

She said the investment that the government is making in the lives of the poor and vulnerable learners is showing positive results. 

She further said children in the department’s Isibindi Programme and the CSG were performing well in schools.

Last year, out of 455 922 learners who passed their matric examinations, 304 913 learners, received a social grant.     

She said social assistance has proven to be an important tool for human capital investment and the biggest contributor to reducing poverty and inequality.

“In order to ensure that the education of these learners continues without interruption, the department is in negotiation with the National Student Financial Aid Scheme to ensure that learners that had qualified for grants are not subjected to a means test to qualify for financial support to further their studies,” the Minister said. 

Illegal deductions on social grants under the microscope

The Minister said the department was faced with huge challenges emanating from illegal deductions on social grants.

She said the deductions were eroding the value and impact of social grants in addressing the deep levels of poverty and inequality in the society.

“We have witnessed high levels of unacceptable practice of illegal, immoral and unauthorised deductions of money from all grant types for services ranging from airtime, water, loans and funeral policies.

“We published revised Regulations to the Social Assistance Act for public comment in February this year, which will deal with this practice.

“The department has considered all the comments and made some revisions to the Regulations,” she said.

The Minister said these revisions to the Act will be published this week.

She said the Ministerial Task Team on Deductions will continue to monitor these practices and ensure that deductions are ultimately brought to an end. 

“The absence of a funeral benefit has opened our social grant beneficiaries to exploitation by private insurance companies. The lack of government action to protect them has led very loud outcry by our beneficiaries and various civil society organisations

“We intend to introduce legislation into Parliament during this current financial year, for the establishment of a funeral benefits fund.” – SAnews.gov.za