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'We are between a rock and a hard place,' says the Department of Social Development.
Image for illustrative purposes. Picture: Sassa.co.za
The Department of Social Development says it has found itself between a rock and a hard place on social grants.
The department appeared before Parliament’s portfolio committee on social development on Wednesday to respond to calls for an increase in the pensioners’ grant.
Riyad Isaac explained to the committee that the current grant amount was not enough, given the high living costs.
“I do understand that pensioners are now getting R2 310, my argument that I am putting forward is that it is nowhere near enough to survive. My heart goes out to all those pensioners. Forget about the racial lines, if you are 60 or 65, remember you are the backbone of society,” said Isaac.
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“When people are employed in the government service or any other entity, they might have a pension, which is lucrative.
“However, the majority of people are not that fortunate. Many people are living below the poverty line and struggling to make ends meet.
“I always encounter people asking for help. The question is, who among us is there to lend a helping hand? So I am asking, R2 300 is not nearly enough because if I look at the rates and rental they have to pay, many of them reach out for food parcels because they do not have enough.
“Our parents have brought us up, and this is how we are treating them? There is no way in hell that we can allow those pensioners to survive on that amount of money.”
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Isaac said that although he understood the R5,000 requested could not be achieved currently, the government should consider adding R500 to the current amount.
Acting chief director of the Department of Social Development Dr Maureen Mogotsi said that although the department sympathised with elderly people, it would not be feasible to pay them R5 000.
Currently, about 19 million beneficiaries receive social grants, 4.1 million are older persons, and an average of 8.5 million receive the Covid-19 SRD grant.
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In 2023, the number of people aged 60 and above was estimated at 5.5 million. Of these, 59.8% were women, while 40.2% were men. The Western Cape (10.8%) had the highest percentage of older people.
About R284.7 billion was allocated to the social grants for the 2025/26 financial year.
The pensioners’ grant is now R2 310 for those younger than 75 (it will increase to R2 320 in October) and R2 330 for those 75 and older (it will increase to R2 340 in October).
“It makes it difficult to argue for an increase of this particular grant because it is already the highest among all grants,” said Mogotsi.
“It exceeds the Upper Bound Poverty line. In contrast, the Child Support Grant is below the food poverty line, even though child poverty is higher than adult poverty.”
Mogotsi said if the government were to increase the pensioners’ grant to R5 000 for the 4.1 million beneficiaries, it would cost the government R246 billion, which would almost double the current budget.
“Is this feasible? It makes it difficult because we are between a rock and a hard place. Even those receiving the SRD grants are below the poverty line. Who should we consider first? It’s not possible for us to increase the pensioners’ grants.”
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