South Africa: Child Support Grant Must Be Increased to Reduce Child Poverty, Review Finds

  • 📰 allafrica
  • ⏱ Reading Time:
  • 63 sec. here
  • 3 min. at publisher
  • 📊 Quality Score:
  • News: 28%
  • Publisher: 99%

Law Law Headlines News

Law Law Latest News,Law Law Headlines

Government could face court action for failing in its constitutional duty

A review of the Child Support Grant has found that unless the grant increases to match the food poverty line, child poverty will continue to increase.

A report on the Child Support Grant by the Children's Institute at the University of Cape Town has recommended the grant be increased to at least match the food poverty line. The current amount of R510 per child per month is not enough to decrease child poverty, according to the report.Out of 20-million children in South Africa, 13-million receive the Child Support Grant. Despite this, more than seven million children remain below the food poverty line of R663 per person per month.

But the current grant"is too small to protect the poorest children from hunger, malnutrition and stunting", the report says. It says 27% of all children under five are stunted. Increasing the Child Support Grant to the food poverty line of R663 per person per month would bring the child food poverty rate down from about 33% to 25%, which would reduce the rates of child hunger, malnutrition and stunting, according to the report. In this scenario, the government is unlikely to be exposed to litigation risk.There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later.

The phased increase would lessen national budget shocks, but would also reduce the poverty reduction impact of the grant due to the time delay.

 

Thank you for your comment. Your comment will be published after being reviewed.
Please try again later.
We have summarized this news so that you can read it quickly. If you are interested in the news, you can read the full text here. Read more:

 /  🏆 1. in LAW

Law Law Latest News, Law Law Headlines