In a much-awaited announcement, the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) has confirmed that there will be an increase in social grants from April 2023. The news was first delivered by Finance Minister, Enoch Godongwana during his annual budget speech in which he announced increments that would be introduced to all permanent social grants.
According to Sassa, the increases will vary, depending on the type of grant and the age of the beneficiary. Older persons, for example, will see their grants increase by R90 for those below the age of 75 years, while child support grant beneficiaries will receive an additional R20 per month. Disability grants will also increase by R90 and foster care grants will increase by R50.
The Top-up child support will have a confirmed increase of R10 and is the only social grant that will not increase any further this financial year. All other social grants will further increase by R10 from 1 October 2023. The increase will be arranged as follows:
The older person's grant (below 75) will be increased by R90 from R1990 to R2080 on 1 April and by an additional R10 to R2090 from 1 October. Meanwhile, the older person's grant for those aged above 75) will increase by R90 from R2010 to R2100 on 1 April and by an additional R10 to R2110 from 1 October.
The Child Support Grant will increase by R20 from R480 to R500 in April and by a further R10 to R510 at the begging of October.
Care dependency grant will be increased by R90 from R1990 to R2080 in April and a further R10 increase to R2090 in October. There will be an R90 increase on the Disability grant from R1990 to R2080 in April and an additional R10 to R2090 in October.
The War veteran's grant will increase by R90 from R2010 to R2100 in April and by an additional R10 to R2110 in October. Grant in aid will also get a R20 increase in April from R480 to R500, with an additional R10 to R510 from October onwards. As mentioned above, the Top-up Child Support Grant will only increase once by R10 from R240 to R250 in April.
Godongwana also confirmed that the increase is in line with the inflation rate, which currently stands at roughly 5%. However, the news was met with a mixed reception from civil rights organization, Black Sash, a non-profit organization that works to protect the rights of vulnerable groups in South Africa.
The organisation said that the agency could gave done more as the increases for pensions, child care, and foster care grants were barely above inflation.
The increase in social grants comes as a relief to millions of beneficiaries who have been struggling to survive in the midst of rising prices and economic uncertainty. With the cost of living continuing to rise, the increase in social grants will likely provide some much-needed relief to the country's most vulnerable citizens.
