South Africa Can – And Should – Top Up Child Support Grants To Avoid A Humanitarian Crisis

By Ihsaan Bassier, Joshua Budlender, Murray Leibbrandt, Rocco Zizzamia and Vimal Ranchhod

South Africa’s COVID-19 lockdown is likely to have a devastating impact on the incomes of workers and their dependants. There is broad agreement that the lockdown is a necessary public health response. But the economic damage that it will do to the poor needs to be addressed urgently.

We project that, in the absence of an intervention targeted at vulnerable households, the extreme poverty rate among these households will almost triple.

Fortunately, the South African state has access to a vast social grant infrastructure that allows it to immediately reach most of the poorest households. The country already distributes 18 million grants every month and 12.5 million of these are child support grants.

To support precarious households that are unable to access existing relief during this lockdown and its aftermath, the South African government should implement a temporary