Huge hike in child grants in province

Number of war veterans needing welfare drops

TAXPAYERS have forked out R2.2-billion towards child support grant in the Eastern Cape in the past three financial alone years.

These figures were revealed by social development MEC Nancy Sihlwayi in a written reply to a question posed by the DA’s Kobus Botha at the Bhisho legislature.

Sihlwayi said the province spent R656 461 050 towards child support grant in the 2015-16 financial year before the figure rose to R711-million in the 2016-17.

She said “economic investment” in child support grant rose to R798 692 200 in the 2017-18 financial year that ended last month.

This means that there was R142million more spent within the past three years as the number of child support grant beneficiaries in the province increased by 21 000.

As at the beginning of April, there were close to two million children benefiting from the taxpayer-sponsored child support grant in the province.

Sihlwayi was replying to Botha, who wanted a breakdown of all categories of social grant beneficiaries and money spent thereto.

Sihlwayi praised the expansion of social grant recipients, saying it was the much-needed social investment in the democratic dispensation.

“This is a progressive and critical investment to the province of the Eastern Cape comparatively from 1993 to date,” said Sihlwayi.

“The progress is equally informed by demographics and geographical spread which continue to improve annually.”

The old-age grant has also seen an increase in both the number of beneficiaries and the money spent in the same period.

In the 2015-16 financial year, R554million was spent paying 372 180 oldage grant recipients but that number hiked to 397 584 costing the taxpayer close to R700-million in the just ended financial year of 2017-18.

The revelation further shows that fewer war veterans are dependant on the state for welfare services and that number is dropping every year.

In the 2017-18 financial year, only R35 116 was forked out paying 21 war vets compared to R59 393 spent on 41 war vets three years ago.

On the disability front, the number of permanently disabled recipients has dropped in the past three years while that of temporarily disabled beneficiaries has risen by a staggering 1 000 new beneficiaries.

At the end of the last financial year, the state had spent R300-million on 173 000 permanently disabled grant recipients while R16-million was channelled towards 9 000 temporary disabled social beneficiaries.

However, there was no indication in the figures released by Sihlwayi as to where these beneficiaries reside in the province and whether there were any bogus recipients or not.

The Dispatch reported four years ago that more than 2 000 bogus child support grant beneficiaries in the O R Tambo District Municipality had to be cancelled in a move to save government millions.

The move came after the South African Social Security Agency then decided to embark on a re-registration process aimed at eliminating bogus beneficiaries. —