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26 February 2003 ACESS is a national alliance of 380 organisations who daily work with children and provide for their basic survival, development and protection needs. All ACESS members believe that South Africa urgently needs a comprehensive social security system that provides all people in South Africa with a basket of grants, benefits and services in order to empower everyone to survive, grow, develop and contribute to our country. This basket of services includes access to grants, education, health care, land and housing, transport, social services, jobs and skills development. We welcome the commitment in the Budget to move towards a comprehensive social security system. We are pleased to see additional resources being allocated to municipalities to improve access to free basic services, additional conditional grants to the provinces for the extension of child support grant, additional resources being allocated to the extension and improvement to the school feeding scheme, additional resources towards improving infrastructure in general, increased allocation to the National Department of Social Development to facilitate improvements in service delivery, an increase in the child support grant amount to R160, and the emphasis on batho pele in the public service. However, in order to do the right thing, we need to do more. Recognising the extent of the poverty problem in South Africa, the Committee of Inquiry, commissioned by Government to provide recommendations for a new system, recommended that the first phase of the system must concentrate on improving people's access to income. Without a basic level of income, the majority of South African's are not able to access the basic services that are necessary for survival and development. People cannot afford the transport costs to get to the various government service points or the costs necessary to go through the administrative procedures required to access these services. While income levels are improved, the more long term improvements to infrastructure and job creation also need to be prioritised. However, we can't wait for the benefits of infrastructure improvements and job creation programmes to kick in - children living in poverty need food and education now in order to survive and develop. Thus, while continuing to campaign for all the elements of the basket of grants and services, we have chosen to focus today's press release on the extension of the child support grant to age 14. We view this extension as the first step towards the extension to all children under 18 and eventually a basic income grant for all people. The question for us today is therefore: Does the 2003 Budget provide the necessary financial and capacity resources to ensure the rapid implementation of the extension of the Child Support Grant to children aged 0 -14 years? On the 14th February, ACESS welcomed the announcement by the State President to progressively extend the Child Support Grant (CSG) to poor children up to the age of 14 years. This announcement was a historic moment for the children of this country. However, the challenge now is to implement the new policy as quickly as possible and to move towards a policy commitment to extend the grant to all children under 18 years and eventually a BIG for everyone in South Africa. Subsequent to the President's speech, there have been conflicting announcements from government as to the timeframe for the extension. This has created confusion on the ground as many people are under the impression that the decision will be implemented immediately and have already begun to go to Social Development offices to apply for the grant for children aged 7 to 14 years. ACESS believes that the call from the people in need must be heard and listened to: The decision to extend the grant to all ultra poor children under 14 years should and can be implemented with immediate effect. The Budget speech indicates that the extension will be phased in over a three year period. This decision is very disappointing for ACESS and our 380 members and the children that we work with. How many children are living in poverty in South Africa? According to our research, there are approximately 14,3 million children under 18 years living in poverty in South Africa. 11, 6 million of these children are under the age of 14. This calculation is based on a poverty line of R400 per child per month. Using a lower poverty line of R200 per child per month, there are approximately 8.8 million children under 14 living in dire poverty. How many children are currently receiving the CSG? After 5 years of implementation, the CSG now reaches 2, 5 million children under 7 years of age. Government's target was to reach 3 million children by March 2003. It is 500 000 short of this target. However, considerable improvements in service delivery and administration of the grant, together with assistance from civil society has shown a marked improvement in take up rates for the grant over the past year. This partnership has shown that with improvements to service delivery and an integrated inter-departmental approach, the grant can be rolled out much faster and reach more children in need. The Budget's commitment to improve service delivery through a greater allocation to the National Department of Social Development will also facilitate a marked improvement in the take up rate. How much will it cost to extend the CSG to very poor children under 14 years? We estimate that it will cost R10,1 billion per year (Using a poverty line of R200, a take up rate of 60% and a CSG of R160 per child) to extend the child support grant to the 8.8 million very poor children under 14 years. In the first two years, the full R10,1 billion would not be required as a take up- rate of 60% is very ambitious. How does this cost compare to the current expenditure on the CSG? Currently, the government expends approximately R4,2 billion on the child support grant per year. Our calculations show that an extra amount of R5, 9 billion per year will be required to provide the grant to all very poor children under 14 years. The budget has allocated 1.1 billion in 2003, 3.4 billion in 2004 and 6.4 billion in 2005. This allocation indicates a decision to phase in the grant extension which is disappointing for the children's sector. Can South Africa afford to implement the extension immediately? Rapid action to implement the extension of the CSG is required by law. In terms of section 28 (1) (c) of the Constitution, the obligation on the state to deliver this programme is not qualified by availability of resources and progressive realisation. According to legal experts, the Constitution requires that programmes to give effect to children's basic needs must be implemented rapidly and financial resource constraints cannot be used as a factor to slow down the rate of rollout of such programmes. Crucially, as pointed out by the Constitutional Court in Grootboom, the Constitution challenges government to build the necessary administrative capacity where it is lacking, in order to facilitate rapid implementation. Government is under an obligation to change its budget priorities and practices to accommodate financing the roll out to children in need. The announcement today, by the Minister of Finance, to give R13, 6 billion of the revenue overrun back to tax payers through rebates, shows that government's priorities do not yet reflect what the people are calling for. The Minister could have allocated a portion of the revenue overrun (R5, 9 billion) to the extension of the child support grant, and still be able to give back R 7, 7 billion in tax rebates to tax payers. This opportunity was not taken and as a result millions of poor children will continue to suffer from hunger, cold, neglect and abuse in 2003. This was not the right thing to do. Contact person:
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