NPOs say SRD grant amendments unlawful, irrational

Civil organisations that made submissions to the government on draft amendments to regulations on social grants say the new policy is unlawful, irrational and can lead to more beneficiaries being cut off.

The Institute of Economic Justice (IEJ) along with partners #PayTheGrants, said the proposed regulations to maintain the social relief distress grant at R350 a month for the fifth consecutive year is causing a significant reduction in real value and does not improve the lives of its beneficiaries. 

“These draft regulations are contrary to DSD’s [department of social development] publicly stated policy direction. In July 2023, DSD revealed that the R350 grant hasn’t kept up with inflation, resulting in a 16% real value decrease, suggesting a raise to R500 or R663 would alleviate poverty,” said Kelle Howson, labour and social security senior researcher at the IEJ.

In their submission, Howson said the proposed value of the grant is discriminatory because it sets the grant value well below that of other social grants.

“It is unlawful because it constitutes a regression in the provision of social assistance, which is required to be progressively improved in terms of section 27 of the constitution. Irrational because it is not connected to any assessment of cost-of-living increases over the last four years, nor is it benchmarked to an objective measure of poverty. Callous and inhumane as it shows a lack of concern for the plight of the poorest members of our society,” said Howson.

The National Treasury has made provisional allocations of R35bn in 2025/26 and R36.7bn in 2026/27 to fund the SRD grant beyond March 2025.

Presenting the 2024 budget speech last month, finance minister Enoch Godongwana announced increases for grants such the old age, war veterans, disability and care dependency grants and only said government was looking into improving SRD grants next month. 

The DSD published draft amendments to the regulations governing the SRD grant, giving effect to the extension to 2025.

The draft amendments allow the department to cancel approved applications when beneficiaries did not update personal and banking details within 90 days of being notified to do so and “any monies due will be forfeited to the state”.

The draft amendments, scheduled to take effect on April 1, state that if the beneficiary dies “the grant will be paid until the end of the month in which the beneficiary died”.

In its submission, the IEJ said the insertion of additional criteria in the regulations raises the significant risk of further exclusion errors.

“We note that the static value of the grant, the one-year extension, and the additional punitive provisions, are not in line with stated government policy, including from the president and the DSD. The president stated in the State of the Nation Address that the government would “extend and improve” the SRD grant. These regulations do not give effect to this commitment and undermine it,” read the submission.

Another clause will give the government the power to recover money from beneficiaries if they are seen to have benefited irregularly or were not entitled to benefit.

“The clause may enable agencies to retrospectively apply flawed verification procedures to past beneficiaries and to recover money from them based on incorrect information. We also have concerns about the mode by which money can be recovered from beneficiaries. Will Sassa be empowered to take money directly from beneficiaries’ bank accounts? Will they be deducted from future grants to which beneficiaries are entitled?” said Howson.