According to the Institute for Economic Justice (IEJ) and the Socio-Economic Rights Institute of South Africa, the R350 Covid-19 Social Relief of Distress (SRD) payment should be raised to a least of R413 to keep up with inflation (SERI).
A united submission was made by the advocacy groups earlier in March regarding the proposed changes to the Social Assistance Act’s SRD grant requirements.
They also demanded a strategy for gradually raising the grant until it reaches the existing threshold for food insecurity.
The R350 SRD grant is intended to be extended through March 2024 by the modifications, which were subject to public feedback from late February through the March 7.
The SRD grant’s worth was recently deemed “very inadequate” by the IEJ and SERI. The organisations expressed worry about the fact that the “expiry date” of the grant was the only element under consideration for revision. The qualifying means test and the bank verification procedure were also criticised by them.
The statement stated, “This is profoundly troubling given that specific restrictions in the regulations have resulted in very high levels of exclusion and that the value of the award continues to degrade, and is highly inadequate.”
The organisations stated regarding the award amount that “R350 is largely recognised as unjustified, and is not tied to any objective or scientific measure of need. High inflation since the grant’s introduction in 2020 has significantly reduced its real value. To account for inflation since 2020, the grant’s value should be increased right away to at least R413 and a plan should be put in place to gradually increase it until it reaches the current food poverty limit.