MEDIUM TERM BUDGET IS TAKING FROM THE MOUTHS OF BABIES, CHILDREN’S ORGANISATIONS CLAIM

THE Medium Term Budget Policy Statement delivered by Minister of Finance Enoch Godongwana received a standing ovation in Parliament. The adulation was presumably for his macro performance: reducing borrowing, stabilising debt and bailing out Eskom. But this came at a cost to social spending, notably for education, health services and social grants.

The special Covid-19 social relief of distress grant (SRD) will be extended for an additional one year to March 2024.

This is to provide the government more time to dither about whether it can afford to provide minimal income support to the millions of adults who are unemployed and have no income because there are no jobs. The Covid-19 SRD is set at a static amount of R350 per month, meaning that each year the real value of the grant decreases. It would have been nearly R400 now if it had kept pace with inflation. From April 2024 there is nothing for it in the budget and no guarantee of the continuance of this lifeline.

The older persons and disability grants received a R10 increase in October. But there is no increase for the child support and foster child grants, or for the SRD. It is hard to imagine a rationale for these decisions, given the disparity in grant values and the ways in which they are targeted.

The older persons and disability grants, at R1990, are substantially above the upper bound poverty line. The grants are not generous, but they provide enough for a person to survive according to Stats SA, which calculates the poverty lines based on a basket of basic food and other necessities.

The child support grant (CSG) and Covid-19 SRD are substantially below the food poverty line, meaning that it is impossible for a person to survive on the grant because it does not even cover one person’s basic food costs. Yet, unlike the other grants, the child support grant and COVID-19 SRD are targeted to the very poor via a means test. The CSG is the most pro-poor of all the permanent grants as well as being well targeted to the poorest women and children. Yet for the past two years it has received below food inflation increases and an even lower increase of just 2% is planned for 2023.