Families suffer as no access to IDs make them unable to secure grants
By Bulelwa Payi
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Cape Town - Sikelelwa Tomase, a Khayelitsha mother of two young children, has once again been left financially destitute after she could not secure a letter from Home Affairs that Sassa demanded to process her application for a child support grant.
Tomase said she was told in 2018 that she could not apply for the grant as she did not possess an ID and had to first apply for one.
She has yet to be granted an ID, despite the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) sending an official to accompany her to Home Affairs offices in Khayelitsha to verify information she had submitted in support of the application.
Several organisations have urged Minister Lindiwe Zulu to introduce a new child grant.
This would be possible in terms of amendments to the Social Assistance Act which currently open for public comment.
The Top-Up grant would partly bridge the gap between the Foster Care Grant and the Child Support Grant.
Civil society organisations have called on Social Development Minister Lindiwe Zulu to introduce a Top-Up child support grant for orphans in the care of extended families.
They say this is a necessary step in addressing the foster care backlog and the increasing workload of social workers.
Draft amendments to the Social Assistance Act include a provision for the minister to prescribe additional payments linked to a social grant on the basis of need.
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Civil society organisations have called on Minister Lindiwe Zulu to introduce a Child Support Grant top-up for orphans in the care of extended family.
They say this is a necessary step in addressing the foster care backlog and the increasing workload of social workers.
Draft amendments to the Social Assistance Act include a provision for the Minister to prescribe additional payments linked to a social grant on the basis of need. Another amendment includes the establishment of an Independent Tribunal to review appeals by grant recipients against the SA Social Security Agency (SASSA).
In a statement, the Children’s Institute, the Centre for Child Law, Child Welfare South Africa, the Children in Distress Network and the Black Sash have called on Zulu to introduce a top-up grant. The top-up grant is intended to help orphaned children whose carers get the Child Support Grant, but who do not have access to the foster child grant, either because they have not completed foster care a