BUDGET 2003
More for children, pensioners
Veronica Mohapeloa
26 February 2003
Finance Minister Trevor Manuel has announced increases in pension, child support and disability grants, in keeping with the government's efforts to alleviate poverty among the vulnerable members of society.
With effect from April, pension and disability grants will increase by R60 to R700 a month, while the child support grant will go up by 14% from R140 to R160 a month.
Delivering his Budget speech in Parliament on Wednesday, Manuel said: "Over the next three years, we will also extend the means-tested child support grant to children in need up to their 14th birthday, raising the total number of social assistance beneficiaries to more than eight million by 2005."
Manuel said this year’s Budget also set aside R1.1-billion for 2003, R3.4-billion for 2004 and R6.4-billion for 2005 to phase in the extension of the grant to children from 0 to 14 years of age.
"This means that seven- and eight-year-olds will qualify for grants in
April 2003, nine- and ten-year-olds in April 2004, and 11- to 13-year-olds the following year."
He added that the funding will be directed to provinces through conditional grants.
The social development department will also receive additional funding to improve the capacity of the grants payments system.
Manuel also announced that children will receive priority in the expansion of the integrated nutrition programme.
"The grant-funded programme increases from R592-million this year to R809-million in 2003/2004 and to R1 042-million in 2005/2006, to off-set the impact of food inflation. The programme will be extended to Grade R pupils and to a larger number of schools," he added.
Source: BuaNews
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