SOCIAL GRANTS

Aliber, M., Davids, Y.D., Sedumedi, S., Mazibuko, S., Mncwango, B. & Diko, M. (2007) The economic impact of welfare grants on selected KwaZulu-Natal communities: final report. (Commissioned by the Department of Economic Development KwaZulu-Natal, November).

This is a report of a study commissioned by the Department of Economic Development (DED) of KwaZulu-Natal to help them better understand the role of social grants within the provincial economy.

Altman, M., Hart, T.G.B. & Jacobs, P.T. (2009) Household food security status in South Africa. Agrekon. 48(4):345-361.

The Human Sciences Research Council has established a policy research initiative to monitor household food security and to identify and evaluate policy options. In this special edition, a selection of articles from this project is assembled. While deep chronic hunger has fallen with the expansion of the social grants, under-nutrition is a very serious and widespread challenge. This special edi...

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Altman, M. & Boyce, G. (2008) Policy options to leverage the system of social grants for improved access to economic opportunity. (February).

This study identifies possible policy options to increase economic participation amongst social grant beneficiary households. It is assumed that the majority of participants would work it they could and that a minority would shirk.

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Altman, M. & Boyce, G. (2008) Policy options to leverage the system of social grants for improved access to economic opportunity. Paper 2: policy instruments and options. (February).

Altman, M. (2007) Policy options to leverage the system of social grants for improved access to economic opportunity: executive summary. (December).

The system of grants offers a powerful instrument that can be leveraged. The state reaches 11 million individuals once per month through a trusted source that reliably gives them money. This may enhance the efficacy of any intervention, it will also enable monitoring and evaluation of any intervention, since beneficiaries have a strong incentive to stay in the system.

Jacobs, P.T., Baiphethi, M., Ngcobo, N. & Hart, T. (2010) The potential of social grants expenditure to promote local economic development and job creation. (March).

This paper argues for developmental social policy and explores options to use social grants transfer instruments (cash, in-kind and vouchers) to achieve localized pro-poor developmental outcomes. Conceptually, this reports draws inspiration from the analytical contributions to redistributive social welfare literature by Amartya Sen, Jean Dreze and Thandika Mkandawire. Amartya Sen and his co-wo...

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Makiwane, M. (2010) The child support grant and teenage childbearing in South Africa. Development Southern Africa. 27(2):193-204.

This paper examines data on teenage fertility and patterns of uptake of the Child Support Grant in South Africa from 1998 to 2005, to assess how far this Grant is associated with the trend in teenage childbearing. Teenage fertility was fairly high during the 1980s when state financial assistance to teenage mothers did not adequately serve the majority of South Africans. Since the first half of ...

Noble, M. & Ntshongwana, P. (2008) No sign of a dependency culture in South Africa. (HSRC Policy Brief, March).

It is frequently argued that the expansion of South Africa's social grant system is leading to a 'culture of dependency'. ThisPolicy Brief demonstrates that there is no evidence for this assertion. In fact, both unemployed South Africans and socialgrant recipients have a positive attitude towards work. There is also general support for extending the social security systemto support the unemployed.

Richter, L.M. (2009) Can and should cash transfers be linked to social welfare?. Vulnerable Children and Youth Studies. 4(S1):72-76.

There are proposals that social welfare services be developed in concert with expanding cash transfers to mitigate the impact of human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syndrome and poverty on children and families in sub-Saharan Africa. However much the target population might benefit from welfare services, the arguments for pairing services with transfers are not convincing. ...

Schwabe, C. & Weir-Smith, G. (2005) Creating a social grant pay point GIS for South Africa: final project report. (Prepared for the National Department of Social Development, March).

Weir-Smith, Gina (2003) Matching the demand: providing social grants. (Paper presented at the SSAG Conference, Bloemfontein, September).