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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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