REFORMS NEEDED

The South African Constitution states that if a child’s parents are absent or unable to provide a child’s basic needs and socio-economic rights, then the State must do so. The Committee of Inquiry into a Comprehensive Social Security System for South Africa was appointed by the Government in 2001. It concluded that the only viable vehicle for the delivery of these needs and rights is a comprehensive social security system made up of a package of grants, benefits and services, which meets the needs of all poor children.

What is being done: the current social security framework?

• The solution to date has largely focussed on the provision of social assistance in the form of a cash grant, namely the Child Support Grant (CSG). Originally the CSG was available only to children below the age of 7 years whose parents earned below the prescribed income threshhold. The eligibility age has subsequently been extended to children below the age of 14. This extension has been phased in over three years: 1 April 2003 – children below the age of 9; 1 April 2004 – children below the age of 11; 1 April 2005 – children below the age of 14. As at 1 April 2004, the value of the CSG is R170 per month per eligible child.
• There are two additional grants available for children with special needs who fall within certain defined categories. They are the Care Dependency Grant (CDG) and the Foster Care Grant (FCG).
• In addition to these grants, there are various other programmes to provide housing, water, sanitation, electricity, and subsidised education to previously disadvantaged communities. However, these programmes are characterised by huge shortfalls and remain inaccessible to many poor children and their families.

Does the current framework meet this constitutional obligation?

As can be seen from the statistics quoted, the current child poverty alleviation programme falls short of meeting children’s basic needs and fulfilling their socio-economic rights. There are two primary reasons for this failure:

• It is inaccessible to many of those who do qualify because of a number of barriers.
• The programme is not a holistic, comprehensive, cross-departmental system designed to meet children’s basic needs and fulfil their socio-economic rights.

Barriers

• Access costs such as transport costs
• Unavailable documentation, such as birth certificates and identity documents
• Administrative corruption and inefficiency
• Means test inadequacy
• Lack of knowledge of rights and redress mechanisms

The Bigger Picture - Lack of a Comprehensive Solution

The current poverty alleviation programme for children is fundamentally flawed in that it is not comprehensive. It uses the CSG as its primary tool in isolation of a comprehensive programme of complimentary services and benefits. This places many parents and caregivers in an untenable position. They have to choose every month whether to use the cash to feed the family, or to spend it on other essential services such as education, healthcare, water or electricity. For caregivers of poor children older than 14, the choices are even more limited since they have no recourse to social assistance in the form of cash grants.

ACESS’s Aim

ACESS aims to ensure, through the collective strength and voices of its members, that social security policy and the ensuing legal framework is responsive and comprehensive, and is accessible to all poor children so that they may survive and develop to their full potential.

The social security system must consist of a complementary package of grants, benefits and services which provides, inter alia, social assistance in the form of cash grants, adequate food, water and sanitation, healthcare, education, and protection from abuse and neglect.

This aim will only be achieved if:

• Barriers inherent in the current social security system are removed, and
• Social security policy evolves to bring it in line with the recommendations made by the Committee of Inquiry into a Comprehensive Social Security System, which suggested a comprehensive social security system made up of a complimentary package of grants, benefits and services to meet the basic needs and socio-economic rights of children in South Africa.