SASSA social grants spending, USA News: Finance minister Enoch Godongwana announced on Wednesday that the government will spend just under R290-billion on social grants this financial year, marking the latest update in a series looking back at 20 years of the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA).
Two decades ago when SASSA began operating, the government spent R57-billion on social grants, an amount equivalent to R156-billion in today’s currency. Factoring in inflation, spending on social grants has grown by approximately 86% between the 2006/07 and 2026/27 periods. Despite this financial growth, social grants expenditure as a percentage of total government spending has remained steady at 11.2% since 2006. It accounted for 2.8% of gross domestic product in 2006/07 and 3.6% in 2025/26.
The total number of people receiving grants has doubled over the past twenty years, climbing from 12-million in 2006/07 to about 26.2-million in 2026/27. While a quarter of South Africans received a grant two decades ago, 40% receive one today. One of the fastest growth periods occurred between 2009 and 2012 when the child support grant was extended to older children. Additionally, the introduction of the Covid Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant, currently valued at R370 a month, added roughly 8-million individuals to the grant system.
Originally intended as temporary assistance for individuals without income during the pandemic, the SRD grant has been extended multiple times, most recently on Wednesday until March 2028. It is expected to be eventually replaced by a grant focused on connecting recipients to job opportunities. However, the government now projects that overall beneficiary numbers will decline.
According to a Treasury policy statement published on Wednesday, the number of grant beneficiaries excluding the SRD grant is projected to drop to 17.1-million by 2029/30 as verification measures are tightened, saving R6.2-billion. Between April and September, 300,000 fewer children received the child support grant than anticipated, and SRD grant recipient numbers for this financial year are also about 300,000 below projections. Consequently, the government will spend about R3-billion less on social grants this financial year than previously budgeted. Grant values have largely kept pace with inflation.
