The R350 grant was introduced almost three years ago, however, a case has been made for its conversion into a Basic Income grant due to the country’s progressive income inequality. During the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic, Sassa introduced the R350 grant and added 11 million grant dependents to the 18 million social grant beneficiaries. Three consecutive temporary extensions of the Social Relief of Distress grant have been granted.
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Basic Income Grants Could Be Launched With Existing Sassa Grants
In the years since, there have been growing calls for the R350 to be made permanent and used as the foundation for a Universal Basic Income Grant. It is possible to implement this through an unfunded Basic Income Grant, according to Duma Gqubule, founder of the Centre for Economic Development and Transformation.
Gqubule Statement About Basic Income Grant and B.I.G Grant
The basic income grant would be converted into a basic income grant and indexed to the country’s three poverty lines, says Gqubule. There are three types of poverty: food poverty, lower-bound poverty, and upper-bound poverty.His model shows that the B.I.G grant would begin with monthly payments of R655 in the current year, R900 in the following year, and R1546 in the third year.If you are a mother with three children, you will get a B.I.G for yourself and each of your children. There is currently no child support grant above the food poverty line, which is not right.
According to Gqubule, the Basic Income Grant would cost a total of R547.8 billion per month if it were measured by value per person. According to him, nearly half of this amount would boost the GDP by 2.5% to 3.8% and create over 2 million jobs annually.
Despite more than 14 million confirmed applicants, the R350 grant currently has 8.4 million approved beneficiaries. Gqubule has criticized this grant for not keeping up with inflation and strengthening eligibility requirements.
