Grants are vital for survival
For more than 22 percent of the households in South Africa, social grants are the main source of income.
THE increase in social grants previously announced by the Minister of Finance in his budget speech and implemented from April 1 sees the older persons’ grant and the disability grant increase from R1270 to R1350 a month. The foster care grant will increase from R800 to R830 per month. The child support grant will now increase from R300 to R310, with another small increase in October 2014, bringing it to R320 per month.
Social grant beneficiaries are experiencing serious problems with the new biometric-banking system now used to pay out grants, and many are experiencing unexplained debit deductions from their accounts. The South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) urges anyone having this difficulty to report this directly to them at 0800 601 011.
The recent interest rate hike, fuel price increase, and rise in inflation rates over and above the alarming increase of basic foods, has had a devastating impact on the most vulnerable members of society. The latest increases in the social grants are not high and some are not even linked to inflation, but any additional amount of money is welcomed by poor households.
Research shows that social grants are one of the most effective means of reducing absolute poverty. The sad reality, however, is that this assistance is only provided to children, the disabled and older people. Unemployed and chronically ill people are currently excluded from the social grants system, even when they suffer extreme poverty. For their survival they must rely on children and pensioners who receive a grant, as they have no other form of income support.
In the absence of a comprehensive employment strategy that seriously addresses the problem of structural unemployment, government should give serious consideration to a basic income grant. This would be a most practical way to improve food security for children, the elderly and disabled, and provide a regular income to the millions of adults who simply cannot find work to support their families. A cash endowment would represent a lifeline to the many hundreds of thousands of people who would depend on it for their basic nutritional needs.
Government must be prepared to invest in our people now, twenty years into democracy, or we may never be able to reverse our neglect, as the quality of life of the unemployed deteriorates daily.
