Simulation of options to replace the special COVID-19 Social Relief of Distress grant and close the poverty gap at the food poverty line

Goldman, Maya; Bassier, Ihsaan; Budlender, Joshua; Mzankomo, Lindi; Woolard, Ingrid; Leibbrandt, Murray

doi:10.35188/unu-wider/2021/105-1

Cited by 10 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…If an applicant is single, the annual income of a single applicant is taken into account -if they are partnered, half of the annual income of an applicant and their spouse is taken into account (DSD 2022). Thus, the limit on average monthly earnings is R19 800.00, but this does not exclude much of the population, considering only 2% earn above this threshold and the national minimum wage is R3570.00 per month (Goldman et al 2021). A more important measure for access to the CDG is thus whether the applicant's child is considered eligible by a medical doctor, who must assess a child's impairment(s) and recommend whether or not the grant should be awarded (cf.…”

Section: Background To the Care Dependency Grantmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘People don’t understand what we go through!’: Caregiver views on South Africa’s care dependency grant

Trafford

2023

Afr. j. disabil.

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Background: Caregivers are under enormous pressure in trying to provide for the needs of their children with disabilities in South Africa. The care dependency grant (CDG), an unconditional cash transfer, is the primary state-subsidised intervention for the social protection of low-income caregivers of children with disabilities.Objectives: The primary objective of this substudy, within a larger multistakeholder qualitative project, was to investigate caregiver perspectives on CDG assessment and application, their beliefs about the purpose of the CDG and how they actually used these funds.Methods: Data for this qualitative research included in-depth individual interviews and one focus group discussion. Six low-income caregivers who were current or previous CDG beneficiaries participated. Deductive thematic analysis was conducted using codes related to the objectives.Results: Access to the CDG was usually too late and over-complicated. Caregivers were grateful for the CDG but it was insufficient to cover the costs of care, in the context of high unemployment and weaknesses in complementary social services. Pressure on these caregivers was intensified by criticism in their social environments and a lack of respite care.Conclusion: Caregivers need service providers to be better trained and for systems of referral to available social services to be strengthened. The whole of society ought also to be targeted for increased social inclusion facilitated by improvements in understandings of the lived experience and cost of disability.Contribution: The rapid time from data collection to write-up of this study will aid in building the evidence base on the CDG, an urgent priority for South Africa’s journey towards comprehensive social protection.

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Section: Background To the Care Dependency Grantmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘People don’t understand what we go through!’: Caregiver views on South Africa’s care dependency grant

Trafford

2023

Afr. j. disabil.

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“…Their paper underscored that social relief assistance to reduce the impact of COVID-19 is not supposed to be seen as a standard poverty alleviation strategy, instead, it is rather a strategy to support COVID-19 related loss of income for those exposed to the negative impact of covid pandemic. Goldman et al (2021) simulated a social grant option that could best replace the COVID-19 grant. they applied a monetary incidence technique, which is based on South African 2015 survey of living condition to reproduce a poverty alleviation effect of social Grant options in order to replace the current covid 19 social Grant when the current covid-19 social relief Grant ends.…”

Section: Effect Of Covid Social Relief On Poverty and Inequalitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Government’s Covid-19 Social Grant in South Africa: A Synopsis of the Effect on Recipients

Mokoena

Ngwakwe

2022

HOLISTICA – Journal of Business and Public Administration

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This paper presents a synopsis of recipients’ benefits from the South African COVID-19 social relief fund. The objective of the paper is to evaluate the key benefit of the COVID-19 special grant and if the Grant had a positive impact in the lives of recipients and their family members. The paper applied a mix of succinct review and thematic analysis. Secondary data collection was from the archive of survey questionnaires conducted by the Department of Social Development. Findings from the thematic graphical analysis of the recipients’ responses show that more than 93% of the COVID grant recipients used the fund for food. Furthermore, over 88% avowed that the grant had a positive impact in their lives and over 79% of the grant recipients indicated that the fund had a positive impact in the lives of their family members. The findings offer practical and policy implication for government’s social security agency. The recipients’ acceptance of positive benefit regarding food and overall effect on wellbeing is an indication that extension of the COVID-19 social relief fund or conversion thereof to unemployment security assistance might have the propensity to provide relief from poverty and hunger to recipients and improve social wellbeing. The paper highlights the imperative for further research to expand this analysis by using other countries for a comparative analysis.

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“…Eligible applicants had to be older than 18, unemployed, and not receiving any income from pensions, Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) payments, or the National Student Financial Aid Scheme. While the grant was designed to target those with no means of supporting themselves, in reality it was provided to all those not formally employed, with the means test of ZAR585 per month (the 2020 FPL) applied only to individuals who appealed their grant denial (Goldman et al 2021). 31 Initially the grant excluded individuals receiving caregiver grants (the foster care grant, child support grant, or care dependency grant), but this criteria was challenged and removed from August 2021 (Zulu 2021).…”

Section: Special Covid-19 Srd Grantmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social distress and (some) relief: Estimating the impact of pandemic job loss on poverty in South Africa

Bassier¹,

Budlender²,

Goldman³

2022

WIDER Working Paper

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Simulation of options to replace the special COVID-19 Social Relief of Distress grant and close the poverty gap at the food poverty line

Cited by 10 publications

References 5 publications

‘People don’t understand what we go through!’: Caregiver views on South Africa’s care dependency grant

‘People don’t understand what we go through!’: Caregiver views on South Africa’s care dependency grant

Government’s Covid-19 Social Grant in South Africa: A Synopsis of the Effect on Recipients

Social distress and (some) relief: Estimating the impact of pandemic job loss on poverty in South Africa

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