South Africans receiving social grants will be getting more money this year. The disabled, old age and care dependency grants will rise by R80.
This means that those who fall under this bracket will receive R1 500 as of April and will increase by a further R10 to R1510 in October.
Speaking during his Budget Speech in Parliament, Minister Pravin Gordhan says the child support grant will also rise by R20 to R350 in April and the foster care grant will rise by R30 to R890. “The overall expenditure on social assistance will increase from R129 billion this year to R165 billion in 2018/19,” says Gordhan.
According to government the aim of the social grants is to provide a social safety net to all South Africans particularly the young, disabled and elderly.
Spending to support this government’s priority is expected to grow from R154 .4 billion in 2015/16 to R195 billion by 2018/19. This means that social grants will account for 12.9% of total government spending over the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) period.
Government will also spend R813 million over the MTEF period towards the newly created early child development conditional grant. The grant was created as part of the cabinet’s early childhood development strategy. The money helps in providing subsidies for poor children to attend early childhood development centres.
Click below for the full speech:
– By Lerato Matlala
