Cape Town - The Department of Social Development will soon be taking its Green Paper on comprehensive social security reforms to Cabinet and this would determine whether government considers implementing the Basic Income Grant.
Acting director-general in the department Linton Mchunu told members of the portfolio committee on social development, on Friday, that the issue of the basic income grant was not finalised yet.
The government has allocated billions of rand to the department in social grants.
Mchunu said the introduction of the R350 social relief of distress grant, for millions of the unemployed, has provided them an opportunity to look at whether the government can introduce a Basic Income Grant.
Currently, there are over 10 million people who are receiving the R350 SRD grant.
The SRD grant was introduced in 2020, after the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the government has extended it several times.
In the last extension, National Treasury released R44 billion, until the end of March next year.
It is not clear whether government will extend the R350 grant again.
But Mchunu said the basic income grant that is being considered will cover people in between the ages of 18 and 59.
“We are busy exploring resource mobilisation and implementation models to make sure we bring this basic income grant into effect as soon as possible. We are taking the Green Paper on comprehensive social security reforms to Cabinet very soon, for further deliberations on this matter regarding the basic income grant or what we would like to call basic income support, particularly for the age groups 18 to 59,” said Mchunu.
siyabonga.mkhwanazi@inl.co.za
Political Bureau