social, disability grants increase by R70
27 February 2008

Social and disability grants to nearly 12 million poor South Africans have been increased by R70, while the child support grant will be raised by R10.

"The maximum values of the disability and old age grants will increase by R70 a month to R940 in April this year, while the child support grant will increase by R10 in April and by a further R10 in October, to R220 a month," said Finance Minister Trevor Manuel.

Presenting his Budget Speech in Parliament, Minister Manuel said the child support grant would also be extended to include children up to 15 years old, effective from January 2009.  Minister Manuel said this indicated the need to review eligibility criteria for the grant, in line with practice in many countries, aimed at reinforcing the responsibilities of caregivers.  "These might include regular school attendance, for example, or immunisation of children in keeping with health requirements.  "There is rightly public interest in these matters, and we should ask this House to lead an active debate."

These increases matched or exceeded inflation, and took into account the disproportionate impact of price increases on the poor, Minister Manuel said. The qualifying age for men for the state old age pension would also be reduced from 65 to 63 this year, to 61 in 2009, and 60 by 2010, he announced.  This reduction of the qualifying age for the old age pension will bring men into line with women, who already get their grant at 60.

"Drawing on the work of the interdepartmental team on social security reform, we will begin to address the difficulties of the present means tests," Minister Manuel told Parliamentarians.

Providing social grants are government's biggest poverty relief programme and this year's additional social assistance cost amounts to R12 billion over the next three years.  The total number of grant beneficiaries is 12.4 million, and expenditure on social assistance will be R75.3 billion in 2009.

The increase in number of social grants is part of government's national War Room for a War Against Poverty which was announced by Predident Thabo Mbeki in his State of the nation Address earlier this month.

The War Room will bringing together departments such as Social Development, Provincial and Local Government, Trade and Industry, Agriculture and Land Affairs, Public Works and Health as well as provincial and local administrations, which will work with non-governmental organisations and business to identify the interventions required in specific households and implement them as a matter of urgency.

Social transfers, Mr Manuel said are just part of the war on poverty, and must be matched by investment in capabilities and opportunities through skills, economic expansion and development of social infrastructure.  "To fight poverty in a holistic manner, a developmental state must balance growth in social assistance with progress on other fronts.

"Our budget proposals therefore reflect both a balance amongst various spending measures, and progressive implementation of reforms," he said, adding that it also required reliable monitoring and measurement tools.

Bathandwa Mbola,   http://allafrica.com