Official reply: 06 May 2015
NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
QUESTION 668 /2015
FOR WRITTEN REPLY
Date of publication on internal question paper: 13 March 2015
Internal question paper no: 07
668. Mr M W Madisha (Cope) to ask the Minister of Social Development:
Whether the 17,5 million people who will be accessing social assistance by
2017-18 will (a) have strong incentives to undertake any remunerated work
if they are (i) of age and (ii) have the skills and opportunity to augment
their income to improve their economic situation, thus freeing themselves
from being solely dependent on social assistance which is inadequate for
their familiesâ needs; if not, why not; if so, what are the details of such
a programme? NW799E
Reply:
a) (i) In South Africa social assistance is currently only provided to
older persons, people living with disabilities and children. These are
generally categories of people who are outside the labour market, and
it is not a societal norm to expect children or older persons to seek
employment.
(ii) Social assistance to low income households remains the most
important pillar to eliminate income poverty. Evidence suggests that
people in households receiving social grants have increased both their
labour force participation and employment rates faster than those who
live in households that do not receive social grants. Consequently,
workers in households receiving social grants have realized more rapid
wage increases. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis
that South Africaâs social grants increase both the supply and demand
for labour.
Research studies further show that grants beneficiaries are willing to
take up work opportunities and develop themselves when this
opportunity becomes available to them. In various studies, examples
are cited of older person providing small amounts of money to job
seeker for job seeking activities (writing and printing of C.Vs,
transport fare etc.). In essence, the majority of working age
recipients for all intent and purposes prefer the joy and independence
of being employed rather than living on a grant.
Thus the challenge we have is not a lack of incentive to work, but a
lack of decent employment opportunities. To this extent, government
has made a number of commitments to employment creation which the
President has highlighted extensively in his State of the Nation
Address. The department has also begun work on a number of initiatives
around co-operatives which will contribute to job creation in our
country. This is over and above our substantial contribution to public
employment programmes in the social sector.
