Social security agency for SA
22 July 2004
The government is moving to root out fraud and improve efficiency in the administration of social grants by launching the South African Social Security Agency.
The national agency, due to be up and running by April 2005, will speed up delivery of social grants, cut down on corruption in the system, and ultimately lift the burden of administering grant applications and payments from the country's nine provinces.
The idea, Social Development Minister Zola Skweyiya told Parliament earlier this year, is to create "a unitary but flexible service delivery mechanism to ensure that we pay the right grant amount to the right person at the right time and in a dignified manner."
The new agency will take over grant payments from the nine provincial social welfare departments, shouldering the responsibility of distributing over R35-billion to more than seven million needy South Africans annually.
Spreading the social security net - The state injects over R2.5bn a month into the budgets of poor households through social grants, giving support to over seven million people - a number that is growing as the drive to register eligible recipients gains momentum. 
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By shifting the social assistance function to national government, and alleviating the pressure of social grant administration on provincial budgets, the government believes the agency will free up provincial departments to focus on improving their social services.
According to Skweyiya, the agency will improve service delivery by employing competent
frontline staff to process social grant applications at the point of delivery.
At the same time, Skweyiya said, skilled back office staff will ensure quicker verification and approval of applications by using advanced technology to communicate with other key government data sources.
Social security contracts with payment agencies and contractors will also be consolidated and standardised, Skweyiya said.
According to the Department of Social Development, the resultant pooling of buying power to contract for the payment of grants could result in a saving of R500-million per year, while reduction of fraud could result in an additional saving of R500-million a year.
The government has been losing an estimated R1.5-billion a year to fraud committed through social grants. Other problems have included long delays in approving grants, long queues at pay points, and low levels of service delivery.
South Africa's social grants target elderly and disabled
people, poor families with children, war veterans, and households taking care of children and people in need.
Expenditure on grants increased 3.5 times between 1994 and 2003, from R10-billion to R34.8-billion, with the number of beneficiaries increasing from 2.6 million to over 7 million during the same period.
SouthAfrica.info reporter
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