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Social Grants to Bring Relief to Soaring Food Prices

By Nthambeleni Gabara,  www.allafrica.com


October 24, 2008  


South Africa  

The increases in the social grants by Social Development Minister, Zola Skweyiya will bring significant relief to impoverished families who are struggling under soaring food, fuel prices and interest rates amongst the poor.

The means test, which takes into account how much one is earning, will also be automatically raised to keep up with inflation and allow people with slightly higher wages to apply for the different social grants.

The new changes will see the child support grant increases from R210 per month to R230 per month, and the old age pension, care dependency and the disability grants rising from R940 to R960 and the war veterans grant will rise from R960 to R980.

The amount paid for a single person, while the care dependency grant increases from R 9 400 per month to R9 600 per month for a single person.

While the increases will only be effective in December, the department said beneficiaries would receive back payments for both October and November.

"I am well aware that our people will want to see these increases immediately. However, the earliest we can implement these changes will be for the December payment run, but this will include a back pay for October and November", he said.

The threshold for the child support grant has also increased from R2 100 per month to R 2 300 per month for a single person while the care dependency grant threshold increased from R 9 400 per month to R9 600 per month for a single person.

The increases come as a result of Finance Minister's Trevor Manuel's announcement of a R20 increase in certain grants.

On Tuesday, he delivered the Mid-Term Budgetary Policy Statement in Parliament, saying that government had taken several steps to mitigate the impact of higher food prices, and income support for the poor remains one of the fastest growing categories of public expenditure.

He said several of these programmes will continue over the medium term, and increased agricultural support should enhance efforts to ensure food security for all.

"Amongst the short term interventions introduced, government is raising the value of the old age grant, child support grant, disability grant and care dependency grant by R20 each this month, so that grant beneficiaries don't have to wait until April to see the buying power of their grants protected," he said.

The minister added that extra resources have also gone to the school feeding programmes and for agricultural starter packs.

In total, adjustments to deal with the short and longer term implications of higher food prices amount to R11 billion over the next three years.

"Since 1994, this government has affirmed that budgets are not about markets or bonds or statistics. Budgets are about people, their lives and their well-being," he said.


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