In line with President Cyril Ramaphosa’s commitment in his state of the nation address earlier this month, National Treasury has allocated an additional R36.4-billion to the budget to continue funding the social relief of distress (SRD) grant for another year.
However, the value of the grant remains frozen at R370, unlike the rest of the government’s welfare grants, which increase broadly in line with inflation. The SRD was introduced in 2020 and was originally intended as a short-term mechanism to compensate poor households for the hardship caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. It reaches 8.2-million beneficiaries.
The old age, disability, and care dependency grants increase from R2,315 to R2,400 on April 1, while the war veterans grant increases from R2,335 to R2,420. The foster care grant increases from R1,250 to R1,295, while the child support and grant-in-aid grants increase from R560 to R580. These are increases of between 3.6% and 3.7% while Treasury estimates inflation will average 3.4% this year.
Finance minister Enoch Godongwana said the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) had upgraded its biometric and income verification processes, leading to the termination of almost 35,000 grants that were incorrect or fraudulent.
“We are committed to improving access for the many South Africans deserving and eligible for social support. Abuse of the system will not be tolerated,” he said in his speech to parliament.
As of December, Sassa had checked the bank accounts of 6-million beneficiaries and 8-million credit bureau clients. It identified more than 291,000 grant beneficiaries for review, which led to grant adjustments that saved the government R36.4m, Treasury said in the budget review. More than 34,600 grants were cancelled. The grants that were terminated are expected to save the government R171m by the end of 2026/2027. Reducing fraud in the system by authenticating beneficiaries is ultimately expected to yield R3bn in savings, said the minister.
Godongwana said work was under way to redesign the SRD grant in line with Ramaphosa’s commitments in his state of the nation address earlier this month.
Further details would be provided in the medium-term budget policy statement later this year, he said.
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