What are the beneits provided?
2. What are the beneits provided?
Persons living with a physical or mental disability which prevents them from working for more than six months can apply for a temporary or permanent DG. Their eligibility is determined through a medical assessment done by
a doctor either from the Department
South Africa: Universal disability grants
person because of their physical PWDs. However, these protecive or mental disability. It is available measures need to be complemented for the beneiciaries of the DG, the by job creaion strategies and Older Person’s Grant and the War campaigns to educate employers not Veterans Grant. The Social Relief of to discriminate against persons with Distress (SRD) programme serves as disabiliies. temporary assistance for applicants Research into the impact of the DG to overcome inancial pressure during has so far been limited. According to the applicaion period (up to 21 days). studies, 77 per cent of recipients cite Depending on how a disability has food as their irst item of expenditure been acquired, beneiciaries may also and 59 per cent say that food is the
be eligible for grants from the Road item on which they spend most of Accident Fund, the Unemployment their money. Recipients also spend Insurance Fund or Compensaion for money on electricity and water bills, Occupaional Injuries and Diseases which varies with the infrastructure Fund.
available in the regions. Other South Africa sill struggles with strong expenditure items are purchases social inequality with a GINI coeicient of clothes, funeral policies, debt of 0.69 ater social grants have been repayments, rent payments, payment disbursed to beneiciaries.
of school fees and remitances. Receipt of the DG, like all other grants, facilitates inancial inclusion of recipients because all beneiciaries have an electronic smartcard for ideniicaion and payments. The DG beneits the whole household of the person with disabiliies or living with HIV, and therefore has direct or indirect impact on the livelihoods of a larger populaion.
3. What is the impact on people’s lives?
4. What’s next?
In a society where unemployment In future, links with employers and stands at 24.3 per cent, many airmaive acion policies to integrate PWDs report being sigmaized and persons with disabiliies into the experiencing severe barriers to access labour market should be pursued and the labour market. The DG provides prioriised to enable beneiciaries some level of support to facilitate to graduate from poverty. This is inclusion in the labour market of already envisaged in the Naional
South Africa: Universal disability grants
Development Plan 2030 and required Kelly, G. 2013, Regulaing access to the by the UNCRPD. To remove the barriers disability grant in South Africa, 1990-2013 for PWDs, the policy framework for Centre for Social Science Research. Working integraion of PWDs exists and needs Paper No. 330 December 2013. University of to be operaionalized through pro- Cape Town. ISBN 978-1-77011-321-3. acive and social understanding of disabiliies.
Leubolt, B., 2014, Social policies and redistribuion in South Africa.
This Universal Social Protection brief Internaional Labour Oice; Global Labour
was produced by Johan Strijdom University. Geneva: ILO, 2014 and Oumar Diop of the Department (Global Labour University working paper: No. of Social Affairs, African Union
25, ISSN: 1866-0541. Commission, and Thea Westphal of the ILO. It was reviewed by Johanna Mandonsela, V. 2010. Presentaion on South Sekele of the Department of Social Africa’s Basic Social Protecion Floor to the Development, and Isabel Ortiz, Valérie Special Event on South-South Cooperaion.
Schmitt and Loveleen De of the ILO. United Naions HQ, NYC. Natras, N. 2006. Disability and Welfare in
South Africa’s era of unemployment and AIDS.
References
CSSR Working Paper No. 147 February 2006. Cape Town.
De Paoli, M., M. E.A and A Backer Grønningsæter. 2012. “The ARV roll out and
SASSA, 2013, Implementaion of CROP in the disability grant: a South African dilemma?”
South to enable the socially excluded and Journal of the Internaional AIDS Society 2012.
isolated access to Social Protecion. Technical Workshop on South-South exchange on
Interview with Thomson Sithole, 06.05.2015, integraing social policies and the delivery of Directorate Disability and Older Persons
social protecion loors 29thMay 2013 Siem beneits, Department of Social Development,
Reap Cambodia.
Pretoria. Stats SA Library Cataloguing-in-Publicaion Johannsmeier, C. 2007. The Social and
(CIP) Data
Economic Efects of the Disability Grant for People with Disabiliies and their Households –
Census 2011: Proile of persons with A Qualitaive Study in KwaZulu Natal Province.
disabiliies in South Africa / Staisics South ISBN: 978-1-86840-624-1
Africa. Pretoria: Staisics South Africa, 2014.
South Africa Main lessons learned
• South Africa has demonstrated
Universal pensions
that extending social protecion to older persons is feasible and afordable for middle-income countries.
Older Persons Grant
• It is essenial to have poliical will and commitment, paricularly, to
South Africa is ranked as an increase public social protecion upper-middle
expenditures. Today, South but characterized by high poverty
income
country
Africa redistributes roughly 3.5 incidence and inequality among
per cent of its GDP through the populaion. The GINI coeicient
social assistance programmes. stands at 0.85 without considering
• Along with other grants, the the efect of the Older Person’s Grant
Older Person’s Grant (OPG) is (OPG). Further, inter-racial inequality
one of the most important tools is signiied by a mean per capita
for poverty reducion in the income of ZAR934 ($76.9) of the black
country. This is evidenced by the and ZAR7,641 ($614.3) of the white
reducion in poverty incidence populaion in 2008.
among older persons from 55.6 South Africa has a long history as
per cent in 2006 to 36.2 per cent
a welfare state and since the end
in 2011.
of the apartheid era in 1994, the social protecion system has played a • OPG also promotes gender
crucial role in combaing poverty and equality (eligibility ages for males inequality. It is also the irst African
and females were harmonized in 2011), and addresses inter-racial
country to have introduced a social disparity, through a gradual pension for older persons. The Older harmonizaion of the beneit
Person’s Grant (OPG) is provided to amounts for diferent racial all people above 60 years of age and
groups.
varies between ZAR1,500 ($112) and ZAR1,520 ($114). It is esimated that
• The creaion of a specialized the OPG along with other social grants
insituion, the South African bring down the high inequality in
Social Security Agency (SASSA), society from a GINI coeicient of 0.77
made delivery of social grants (without grants) to 0.60 (with grants)
transparent and independent (OECD, 2015).
from poliical consideraions.
South Africa: Universal pensions
• non-white workers were legalized,
South Africa uses an integrated which contributed to expand the system for grant delivery, grant to the non-white populaion. monitoring and evaluaion (M&E).
The integrated M&E system Further, the amount of the old-age helps to coninuously improve
grant was gradually harmonized for delivery. Biometric ideniicaion
diferent racial groups with a view to of beneiciaries limits the chances
achieve parity. During the 1980s, the for idenity thet.
pension for the black populaion was increasingly raised while that for the white minority was decreased. By
1. How was the older
1992, the means test was equalized
persons grant developed?
for everyone regardless of race, which led to an increase of the income
Means-tested social pensions were threshold for the black populaion. introduced in 1928. Originally, a Older Person’s Grant (OPG) is a social social pension existed primarily for grant in South Africa whose design white male workers who had no has changed signiicantly in the last access to occupaional pensions and decade. Two of these design changes mixed-race women over 60 years have signiicantly contributed to of age. With ime, trade unions for achieving universal social protecion.
Figure 1. Maximum Older Person’s Grant paid to South African black and white pensioners, 1925-2000
Source: Seekings/Natrass 2005:131
South Africa: Universal pensions
prove that the beneiciary is sill alive. SASSA conducts the review and must noify beneiciaries three months prior to the review. In cases where payments are made electronically, the review automaically takes place once a year. Geographic variaion in coverage is mostly due to income diferences between regions. The highest efecive coverage rates are found in the metropolitan region of Johannesburg and Pretoria.