The lives of orphaned children are set to improve through the government’s social assistance programme.

The Department of Social Development gazetted the proclamation of the Social Assistance Amendment Act on Monday to commemorate Child Protection week, which runs from May 29 to June 5.

Spokesperson Lumka Oliphant said social assistance was one of the country’s biggest child protection programmes currently reaching just over 13 million children.

Oliphant said the commemoration was also meant to raise awareness of the scourge of teenage pregnancy, abuse and exploitation.

She said the Social Assistance Amendment Act sought to make provision for additional payments linked to social grants which included, the implementation of the extended child support grant (CSG) policy for orphans in the care of relatives (CSG Top-Up).

The CSG policy is one of government’s social protection interventions for children living in poverty.

The CSG Top-Up scheme seeks to extend the social net with a focus on orphans living with adult relatives and orphans living on their own in child-headed households.

This will enable them to access the benefit for themselves.

“This policy intervention empowers the Minister of Social Development, in concurrence with the Minister of Finance, to make provision for a top up of 50% more on the child support grant for orphans in the care of relatives who are eligible for the CSG.”

She said the children would also receive their basic CSG which was currently billed at R480, plus an additional amount of R240 to a total of R720.

“This provision forms part of the comprehensive legal solution to the foster care challenge, as it will enable relatives caring for orphans to get a social grant quickly by going directly to Sassa without first needing a social worker’s investigation, report and a court order.”

She said the CSG Top-Up alleviated the burden on social workers contending with high foster care case-loads by reducing the number of new applications and extensions.

“This will free them up to provide responsive child protection and care services to all children in need of care and protection.”.

Oliphant stressed that the grant was not new, however sought to build on the existing CSG system in a form of a “top-up” amount.

She said the intervention strengthened and supported the safety net to orphaned children through a specifically defined additional accessible cash benefit.

“It will enable relatives caring for orphans to provide for their basic needs and support that are required within their extended family environment without removing them from the households they are familiar with.”

She said the proclaimed amendment would also facilitate online applications for CSG and CSG Top-Up in order to alleviate the burden on primary caregivers who had to travel long distances or queue at Sassa offices to lodge an application.

In order to receive this benefit, applicants are required to prove that a child is an orphan by providing:

– Certified copies of the death certificates of the child’s parent/s

– Where the death certificate of one of the parents of the child cannot be obtained by the applicant, a certified copy of the death certificate of one parent and an affidavit by the applicant attesting to the unknown status of the child’s other parent.

Caregivers who are eligible may apply for the CSG Top Up at any Sassa office and online.