The Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant is officially being increased. The SRD grant increase announcement was made on Wednesday, 13 March 2024 by Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana.
Commonly referred to as the R350 grant due to its monetary value, the beneficiaries of the SRD grant will begin receiving R370 from 1 April 2024. This means the R350 grant is being increased by R20 or 5.7%.
Subject to the finalisation of the comprehensive social security, we will increase the R350 [grant] to R370 by the first of April this year.
Gondongwana described the increase as “the realisation of the basic rights of our people”.
Reaction To Grant Increases
Daddy Mabe, Secretary of PayTheGrants labelled the R20 increase as extremely offensive. They explain that due to inflation, the buying power of the grant will decline.
They say despite the increase, they are calling for the grant to be increased to R530, using the child support grant as a benchmark.
Long term, until we have a universal basic income grant, it must be benchmarked according to the Food Poverty Line which is R760.
More About The SRD Grant
The SRD Grant is paid to approximately nine million people living in South Africa every month. It's important to note that this is the only grant directly intended to assist unemployed adults living in the country.
It was introduced back in 2020 to assist unemployed people who had little to no prospects of finding employment due to lockdowns. While it was initially intended to support people for a period of three months, its implementation has been extended on several occasions.
The latest official extension of the SRD grant was 2 November 2023 when Finance Minister, Enoch Godongwana announced the extension of the R350 grant which was previously set to end in March of 2024. The most recent extension means that beneficiaries can collect their R350 grant until March 2025.
During the 2024 budget speech, Godongwana revealed that work was underway to improve the COVID-19 Social Relief of Distress Grant by April 2024. The Minister indicated that these improvements will be within the current fiscal framework".
National Treasury will work with the Department of Social Development to ensure that improvements in this grant are captured in the final regulations ... For the extension of the grant beyond March 2025, the social security policy reforms, together with the funding source, will be finalised.
Provisional allocations for 2025/26 and 2026/27 was also provided for the implementation of the SRD grant after receiving a budgetary allocation of R33.6 billion for 2024/25. Provisional allocations for 2025/26 and 2026/27.
This means that should the government see fit, the implementation of the grant would be extended until March 2027.
We have seen the benefits of this grant and extend it and improve it as the next step towards income support for the unemployed.
Impact of The R350 Grant
During the 2024 State of The Nation Address (SONA), President Cyril Ramaphosa praised the impact of the grant arguing that it does not only provide people with what they need to survive but also serves as an investment in their future.
In the midst of the pandemic, we introduced the SRD Grant which currently reaches some 9 million unemployed people every month.
The president further disputed that grants and social support established a society dependent on government support.
These grants and subsidies do much more than give people what they need to live, they are an investment in the future. Many people tend to dismiss this and say we are establishing a dependent society, we are investing in our people and investing in their future as well.
