The South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) presented its 2014/15 annual report to the Portfolio Committee on Social Development on Thursday, 15 October 2015. In its report, the Agency provided a status report on beneficiaries of social assistance, social assistance trends per province, as well as child grant beneficiaries.
The report showed an overall increase in social assistance benefits (4.46%) since 2013/14, bringing the total number of social assistance grant benefits to 16 642 643 for 2014/15. These benefits include child grants (74%), older person’s grants (19%) and disability grants (7%).
The Western Cape (7.42%) and Gauteng (6.12%) showed the highest growth rates in beneficiaries due to intensified campaigns to reach excluded children. Child grants in the 0 – 1 age group totaled 597 459 social assistance benefits of which 596 920 are allocated as child support grants.
The "Hands Off Our Grants (HOOG)"campaign recently drew attention to the many challenges faced by the beneficiaries of social assistance and asked for SASSA to in-source the administration and payments of grants to protect beneficiaries against loan sharks and unauthorised and often fraudulent deductions.
SASSA told the Committee that it would be taking total responsibility for the payment of social grants by 2017/18. See infographic below for details on social grant beneficiaries:
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