During his maiden budget speech, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana revealed which government department will receive the largest allocation of funds over the medium term.
The Department of Social Development will be receiving a total allocation of funds of 58.6 billion over the medium term.
A large contributor to this fund is the Social Relief of Distress (SRD) R350 grant. Around R44 billion has been allocated to the department for the grant.
The grant, which is distributed by the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) was extended by 12 months. It was initially set to come to an end in March 2022 but was extended by the government.
President Cyril Ramaphosa announced the extension of the grant during his 2022 State Of The Nation Address.
Another contributor to the allocation for the Department of Social Development is the initiation of a new exceeded child support grant for double orphans. This, according to Godongwana, will encourage the care of orphans within families rather than placing the children in foster care.
The minister also announced that the allocation would provide an inflationary increase to the permanent grants offered by the government.
He said, “For the 2022/23 fiscal year, the old age, war veterans, disability and care dependency grants, will increase by R90 in April and a further R10 in October. The foster care and child support grants will increase by a once-off R20 in April”.
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