SA’s child support grant is ‘indispensable’ in the first two years of life
The grant is recognised as one of SA’s most successful poverty alleviation strategies, and has halved the number of children living below the food poverty line
The child support grant (CSG) has halved the proportion of South African children living below the food poverty line, the most severe measure of poverty, from 58% of children in 2003 to 30% in 2014. According to the 2016 issue of the South African Child Gauge report released on Tuesday, almost two-thirds of children in SA live below the upper band of the poverty line. However, the grant system has had a big effect on millions of children who would otherwise be living in extreme poverty, says the report, which was produced by the Children’s Institute in partnership with UN children’s rights agency Unicef. Introduced in 1998, the grant is now recognised as one of SA’s most successful poverty alleviation strategies. In 2016, a total of 12-million children received the CSG, which as of October was valued at R360 per month, or R12 a day. The R360 per month grant falls below all three national poverty lines. A single caregiver must earn less than R3,600 per month to be eligible for the CS...
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