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Almost a quarter of households rely on social grants as their main source of income: StatsSA

Social grants are the main source of income for 24.4% of national households, according to statsSA. File photo.
Social grants are the main source of income for 24.4% of national households, according to statsSA. File photo.
Image: SA government via Twitter

Almost one-quarter (24%) of households rely on social grants as their main source of income, with over half of national households receiving grants, Stats SA has revealed. 

Most (52.4%) households rely on salaries or wages as their primary income source.

The stats indicate most (42%) households in the Eastern Cape receive social grants as their main source of income compared to 37.3% that receive salaries. 

Gauteng (23.6%) and Western Cape (26.2%) had the lowest percentages of households that indicated grants as their main source of income. 

Households that received at least one type of social grant were most common in Mpumalanga (65.8%), Limpopo (65.1%), and Eastern Cape (63.3%), and least common in Western Cape (38.7%) and Gauteng (38.4%).

Stats SA also reported social grant accessibility increased from 2003 to 2021.

“The percentage of individuals who benefited from social grants steadily increased from 12.8% in 2003 to approximately 31% between 2017 and 2019 before increasing sharply to 35.7% in 2021.

“This growth was tracked closely by that of households that received at least one social grant, growing 30.8% in 2003 to 45.5% in 2019, and 50.6% in 2021,” said the report. 

Mpumalanga and Limpopo had the highest number of young people who received the R350 social relief of distress (SRD) grant introduced in 2020 to limit the impact of Covid-19. 

The highest uptake in 2021 was registered in Mpumalanga and Limpopo. Both provinces have 9.5%, while the grants were least common in Gauteng (4.0%) and the Western Cape (2.8%).


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