LOCAL
Civil society organisation, Pay The Grants has slammed government’s proposals to replace the Social Relief of Distress Grant (SRD) with Job Seekers Grant.
The organisation has echoed the Institute for Economic Justice which says the proposals are designed to exclude as many people as possible.
In discussion documents, the Presidency and the National Treasury have suggested options for new grants to replace the Social Relief of Distress grant.
The SRD grant of R350 a month was introduced by the government as a response to the impact of COVID-19 and the lockdowns for anyone whose income falls below a threshold to receive the grant.
The new proposals, include replacing the SRD grant with a job-seeker and a caregiver grant.
The National Treasury suggests a combination of an SRD-job-seeker grant and an SRD-caregiver grant for those who cannot work.
Pay The Grants co-ordinator, Melanie McKernan says they oppose the Treasury’s suggestion.
“National Treasury is claiming that they want to change SRD grants into something where you have to qualify for it, if you apply for employment and that is a problem for us going forward as you’re excluding [excluded].”
“The fact that Treasury thinks people are sitting not looking for employment is beyond us and beyond everybody. These people want to work, you can’t live on R350, you would not even survive,” explains McKernan.
The video below is reports that 5% of people applying for the SRD Grant hold tertiary qualifications:
Source: SABC news
