No justification for terminating Covid-19 SRD and Caregiver Grants!
24 May 2021
Last week eNCA reported that the Department of Social Development (DSD) stated that were it not for the Covid-19 Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant, the number of people living below the Food Poverty Line would have doubled. SASSA further revealed that currently over two million approved Covid-19 SRD beneficiaries have not been paid, while over one million people who were approved on appeal are yet to receive payment.
The triple challenges of unemployment, poverty and inequality have been compounded by the pandemic. National Treasury denied DSD’s request for funding to extend the Covid-19 SRD grant beyond April 2021. Income support for millions of destitute people has been cut off, leaving them to face a Covid-19 third wave without any means to afford food and other basic necessities. There is no justification for terminating the Covid-19 SRD grant.
The NIDS-CRAM Wave 4 study further illustrates that the decision to terminate social relief measures, such as the grant top ups and the Covid-19 SRD grant, is not only premature but grossly negligent. The study paints a bleak picture of households still under strain faced with food insecurity and hunger. Researchers found that two thirds (67%) of households ran out of money to buy food in the previous month in at least one of the four NIDS-CRAM surveys. In households with children, one third of the respondents (32%) stated that in at least one of these surveys, a child had gone hungry in the past week. Child hunger is still nearly double pre-pandemic levels, which was 8% in 2018.
While the economy reopened, food insecurity and hunger remained high due to loss of income. Researchers argue that grant top-ups, together with the Covid-19 SRD grant, is mostly responsible for the decline in hunger during certain periods of the study. The study concluded that top-ups and special grants played an even more significant role than the easing of lockdown restrictions for improving food security. The study recommends the reinstatement of the top ups and Covid-19 SRD grant.