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BL Premium reports that Finance Minister Tito Mboweni has given with one hand and taken away with the other, allocating R2.1bn in the budget for a three-month extension of the special Covid-19 social relief of distress grant, but cutting welfare grants for the first time in more than a decade.
In a move set to increase hardship among SA’s poorest households, the Treasury has allocated increases to the welfare grants that won’t keep pace with inflation, which it estimates will be 3.9% in 2021/2022. SA has an extensive welfare grant system that covers SA’s most vulnerable people, including children, pensioners and people with disabilities. This welfare net excludes working age adults who are unemployed, therefore in 2020 the government established several short-term relief measures to try to cushion the economic hardship triggered by the coronavirus lockdown. These measures included a R350 per month social relief of distress grant for jobless people who were not eligible for unemployment insurance. It was slated to expire at the end of January, but which was extended until the end of April. The government also topped up the child support grant by R500 per caregiver, and the old age pension by R250 per month between May and October 2020. This year’s budget sees the child support grant increase from R445 to R460 a month, a nominal increase of 3.4%; the care dependency, old age, and disability grants grow from R1,860 to R1,890 a month, a nominal increase of 1.6%; the grants for war veterans and people over the age of 75 rise from R1,880 to R1,910, a nominal increase of 1.6%; and the foster care grant rises from R1,040 to R1,050 a month, a nominal increase of 1%.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Tamar Kahn at BusinessLive (paywall access only)
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