23 February 2005

Finance Minister Trevor Manuel has announced increases in social security grants to benefit the poor, those living with disabilities and vulnerable children.

As of April this year, pensioners, the disabled and the care-dependent will receive an additional R40, which will see recipients taking home R780 a month.

Delivering his Budget Speech in Cape Town on Wednesday, Manuel said the foster care grant would increase by R30 to R560 a month, while the child support grant would increase to R180 a month.

These increases will have a major impact on the income security of the most vulnerable, particularly in support of children under the age of 14.

Manuel said, however, that the expansion in the distributive thrust of the grants carried costs.

"Of the R74-billion in additional allocations over the 2004-06 medium term expenditure framework, a total of 30% is added to the social grant programmes, bringing aggregate social security spending to R55.4-billion next year and to 12.7% of consolidated spending by 2007/08."

Manuel said the increase in social spending was made possible by the strength of the economy and stronger tax collection, with the Treasury projecting to raise R11-billion more than budgeted for in the 2004/05 financial year.

Source: BuaNews

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	National Budget 2005/06  National Treasury  Business Day: Budget 2005  Business Report: Budget 2005  Finance24: Budget 2005  SABCnews.com: Budget 2005  Grant Thornton: Budget 2005

BUDGET 2005/06 Manuel delivers upbeat Budget Economic growth forecast at 4.3% Trevor gives us a break Tax relief for small business Infrastructure projects to take off Finance boost for small farmers Boost for police, courts, prisons R2bn for new housing strategy R1bn for training colleges Social security grants increased