Just under 16 million South Africans were receiving some form of social security grant from government last year, according to Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini.<\/p>\n
This cost government more than R109 billion during 2013\/14, she said on Monday (20 October), in a written reply to a parliamentary question.<\/p>\n
The SA Social Security Agency provides grants including old age, war veterans, disability, grant-in-aid, care dependency, foster care, and child support.<\/p>\n
Of the total 15,932,473 grant beneficiaries last year, 70 percent (11,125,946) received child support grants. A total of R39.6bn was paid out on child support grants during 2013\/14.<\/p>\n
Over the same period, R44.1 billion was spent on old age grants – referred to as older person’s grants – to 2,969,933 beneficiaries.<\/p>\n
The total spent on all grants last year was R109,053,880,000.<\/p>\n
Figures for the first quarter of this year (2014\/15), given in the reply, show the number of beneficiaries is on the rise.<\/p>\n
There were 16,242,196 grant recipients at the end of June, and the cost of providing their benefits up to that date was R29.3bn.<\/p>\n
There were 2.5 million social grant beneficiaries in 1998.<\/p>\n
South Africa sinks in economic freedom ranking<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n