SASSA Children’s Grants: The welfare leader in Africa

SASSA Children’s Grants pay out to more than 13-million needy beneficiaries with children every single month. That scale alone makes South Africa’s child welfare system the most comprehensive social-protection programme not just in the country, but in all of Africa. No other country on the continent even comes close …

As beneficiaries know, SASSA Child Support Grants pay R580 per child, per month, direct to a primary caregiver. Millions of households depend on that money landing on time, every 28 days. Adjusted for inflation, a qualifying parent could receive roughly R180 000 from the time of birth to their child’s 18^th birthday.

SASSA CHILDREN’S GRANTS SUCCESS STORY

Roughly 20 African countries run some version of SASSA Children’s Grants. However, the cash-transfer schemes mostly operate at a fraction of the South African Social Security Agency:

• Kenya’s cash transfer for Orphans and Vulnerable Children reaches a few hundred thousand households, not millions like in South Africa.
• Lesotho’s Child Grants Programme caters to just over a thousand households, which is understandable given its size.
• Ghana runs the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty programme.
• Malawi has its own Social Cash Transfer scheme.
• Zambia has scaled its Child Grant Programme into a national effort over the years.
• Zimbabwe, Tanzania and Mozambique all run smaller variants of SASSA Child Support, too.

SOUTH AFRICA’S RANKING AT NUMBER ONE

Researchers at the International Journal of Equity in Health consistently rank SASSA Children’s Grants as the largest on the African continent. Not just that, but among the largest globally, alongside Brazil’s Bolsa Família. The key being that South Africa built this social-protection system on general tax revenue back in 1998, and not foreign aid. This is what sets it apart from many of the donor-dependent schemes elsewhere on the African continent.

The gravitas of SASSA Children’s Grants means roughly 45% of the population depend on a state grant to survive. Caregivers earning under R5 800 a month, or R11 600 for married couples, qualify without an asset test attached. Independent research links SASSA Children’s Grants to measurable drops in child malnutrition, better school attendance, and improved household resilience during economic shocks. Women who receive the grant report greater financial agency within their homes, too.

No other government programmes carry that kind of evidence backing them. Whatever criticism gets levelled at the agency, SASSA Children’s Grants remain unmatched on the continent. No other African government feeds, clothes and educates as many children through direct cash transfers each month as South Africa does. Keep that in mind when you’re penning your next comment on how badly government is failing the youth …

But what do you think? Are SASSA Children’s Grants a good thing for the country’s needy? Or should jobs be created instead of handouts? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below …