CAPE TOWN — The Cabinet has shrugged off the ravaging effect of recession on tax revenue, and decided to extend the child support grant from the 15-year cutoff to 17 years, a move that will contribute to an already ballooning budget deficit.
The extension of the grant of R240 a month will be phased in over the next three years, costing R7,4bn.
The decision, which will eventually benefit an estimated
2-million children in poor households, has been hailed by child welfare groups, which have been campaigning for more than a decade for what they say is a constitutional right of children.
Already about 13,3-million people benefit from the government’s social-grant programme, which this year cost the fiscus R80bn, of which R28bn was for the child-support grant.
The extension will start on January 1 with funding provided for in the medium-term budget policy statement, which Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan will table on Tuesday.
Gordhan will also update government projections for economic growth, inflation and the budget deficit for this and later years. The cost of phasing in the extended child support grant has been projected at R1,3bn in 2009-10 when eligible 15-year-olds join the system, R2,6bn in 2010-11 when 16- year-olds join, and R3,5bn in 2011-12 when 17-year-olds are included.
On present statistics, 423523 children will join in the first year, 360755 in the second year and 272354 in the final year.
The government has shied away from making it compulsory for caregivers getting child-support grants to send their children to school, as in Brazil. Cabinet spokesman Themba Maseko said at a post-Cabinet media briefing yesterday the Cabinet thought that too punitive, but caregivers would be encouraged to do so. “This decision only applies to children from poor households and is part of government’s commitment to reduce poverty amongst children,” Maseko said.
The African National Congress promised to extend child-support grants up to the age of 18 in its election manifesto after a resolution was adopted at its 2007 Polokwane national conference.
Former finance minister indicated in his budget speech in February that consideration was being given to the proposal “subject to affordability”.
The grant was extended successively to more children over time, and was extended to those aged 14 to 15 this year.
The Black Sash, the Children’s Institute at the University of Cape Town, and the Alliance for Children’s Entitlement to Social Security welcomed the Cabinet decision.
“This is a significant milestone in our journey to realise the constitutional rights of all our children to social assistance,” they said.
“We are particularly excited that we can take this good news back to the hundreds of parents and caregivers who only this month shared their testimonies with us, describing how the loss of the grant at 15 had impacted on their families.
“The testimonies we gathered at hearings around the country showed that the child support grant contributes significantly towards reducing child poverty.”
ensorl@bdfm.co.za