The department spent R27.9 billion or 24.9 per cent of the total available budget by the end of the first quarter. Planned expenditure by that point in the year was R34.4 billion- equivalent to 30.7 per cent of the total available budget. The department therefore showed a variance of R6.6 billion or 19 per cent. This was primarily due to an accounting technicality. R5.3 billion of the variance was in fact transferred in the first quarter to the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) but had not yet been technically classified as expenditure due to delays in process in the accounting department. Nonetheless, these funds left the department as planned.