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Treasury expects R13bn grant savings to fund anti-violence work

Published

Treasury says tighter checks on SRD grant applicants and fewer child support grant applications will save money over the medium term. It will spend part of the savings on social workers, child health and the fight against gender-based violence.

Treasury set aside R3.8bn for provinces to hire more than 3,500 social workers over the medium term. It also allocated R1.6bn through the district health programmes grant for pregnant women and young children. The criminal justice system gets R186m extra for forensic services and investigative capacity.

The department of women, youth and persons with disabilities gets R157.4m to coordinate the government's response to gender-based violence. The Human Sciences Research Council says a third of South African women have faced physical violence. Almost one in 10 have experienced sexual violence.

The South African Social Security Agency is working with banks to remove SRD beneficiaries who broke the income rules. The grant is R370 a month and has about 7-million beneficiaries. In all, 18.1-million people received social grants by the end of September.

Treasury warned that a legal challenge to the SRD grant regulations is a material expenditure risk that could unwind the savings. If the high court judgment is upheld, it estimates the annual cost could rise from R36bn to R74bn. That is a preliminary estimate.

Treasury director-general Duncan Pieterse said the government must decide what the grant is for. Civil society groups want a more generous universal basic income grant instead.

Key facts

Who
Duncan Pieterse (Treasury director-general); South African Social Security Agency (agency working with banks to weed out SRD beneficiaries who breached income…); Treasury (announced the savings and allocations); Human Sciences Research Council (source of statistics on violence against women)
What
Treasury announced that savings of R13bn in social grant payments are expected over the medium term, arising from stricter SRD grant verification and falling child support grant applications. The savings will fund extra allocations including R3.8bn for social workers and R186m for criminal justice forensic services to tackle violence against women and girls.
When
21 October 2026
Where
South Africa
Status
Reported

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