‘Basic Income Grant’ to stick around until 2027

·21 Feb 2024

The South African government will continue to pay the Social Relief and Distress (SRD) Grant until March 2027.

The R350 SRD grant was initially introduced during the Covid-19 pandemic as a support mechanism for the unemployed.

According to the 2024 Budget, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana said that the government has provisionally allocated funding for the SRD until March 2027.

The SRD grant is allocated R33.6 billion in 2024/25 with provisional allocations of R35.2 billion and R36.8 billion for the 2025/26 and 2026/27 financial years.

President Cyril Ramaphosa previously said that the SRD Grant will be extended and amended to form part of the Basic Income Grant (BIG).

Ramaphosa said that the SRD grant now supports 9 million unemployed people monthly, while fact-checkers say the real number of recipients is closer to 7.7 million.

However, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana has remained coy on how the SRD will be turned into a BIG:

“Work is currently underway to improve the Covid-19 Social Relief of Distress Grant by April this year. National Treasury will work with the Department of Social Development in ensuring that improvements in this grant are captured in the final regulations,” Godongwana said.

“These improvements will be within the current fiscal framework. For the extension of the grant beyond March 2025, the social security policy reforms, together with the funding source, will be finalised.”

On the other hand, permanent social grants were increased to keep up with inflation and improve access.

This includes increasing the old age, war veterans, disability and care dependency grants by R100, which will be divided into R90 effective from April and R10 effective October.

There will also be a R50 increase to the foster care grant and a R20 increase to the child support grant.