In the Statistics South Africa (StatsSA) General Household Survey, 2020, the South African population had been estimated to be 59 437 million. It is out of this population that 34.9% of individuals were receiving social assistance in 2020 and more than 50% of households were receiving social grants.
In a different survey, StatsSA also confirmed that the country has been experiencing persistent high levels of unemployment, rising from 32.5% in the fourth quarter of 2020 to 35.3% in the same quarter of 2021.
The South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) has shared that it has responded to the growing economic hardships experienced by the poor and unemployed by continuing to stick to its mandate of administering social grants to deserving individuals.
In a statement, the government agency, Sassa has shared:
Grants were the second most important source of income for households.
According to reports, households that were confirmed to have been receiving at least one type of grant were mostly common in:
Limpopo (68.8%), Mpumalanga (64.7%) and Eastern Cape (63.1%), and least common in Gauteng (39.5%) and Western Cape (44.9%).
It is said that the number of social grants increased by 33.48% during the period between April 2007 and March 2022.
This increase was mainly driven by the Child Support Grant, the Old-Age Grant and grant-in-aid, a trend that is said to have been influenced by policy changes and an improved outreach programme.
Due to the growing demand in these, the government agency has indicated that it had also increased the number of grants in payment over the years, including grants-in-aid, to meet the growing demand for financial assistance.
