The constitutional mandate of the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) is to administer, manage, and pay social grants to all qualifying beneficiaries. The agency’s social assistance programme provides income support for older persons, war veterans, people with disabilities and children.
According to the Department of Social Development, the consecutive annual rise in demand for government spending on various social grants has resulted in Sassa grants being the government’s largest social security response to poverty and income inequality.
Sassa Grants
The arrival of the Covid-19 pandemic during the earlier parts of 2020 had a devastating impact on the country’s health, economic and labour sectors, which played a significant role in increasing demand for social grants across all categories.
High unemployment remained a persistent problem in South Africa, with the demand for social assistance being directly impacted by unemployment rates. This was demonstrated by the fact that in 2020, 34.9% of the world's population or over 59 million people were anticipated to need social assistance.
Sassa further indicates this trend of growing demand for spending on social grants, particularly during and between 2019/20, 2020/21 and 2021/22 financial years.
The agency's social grant expenditure per grant type totalled R190 289 381 during 2019/20, R218 956 935 in 2020/21 and R222 717 897 during the 2021/22 financial year. This has so far resulted in a total increase of R32 428 516 social grant expenditures throughout the course of three years.
The report also reveals that approximately 29 million South Africans relied on social grant payments for basic needs during the period under review, at a cost of R192 million.
More than 10.2 million individuals benefited monthly from the R350 Social Relief of Distress (SRD) after 167 802 SRD applications were granted.
