Litigating the Right to Social Assistance: The SRD grant court case

The Institute for Economic Justice and #PayTheGrants filed a court case on 21 July 2023 challenging the Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant regulations. The challenge argues that barriers to access and the stagnant R350 monthly value violate the constitutional right to social assistance and constitute unconstitutional retrogression.

• On 21 July 2023, the IEJ and #PayTheGrants, via the Socio-Economic Rights Institute (SERI), initiated legal action against the Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant regulations to remove barriers that prevent eligible people from accessing the grant.
• The legal challenge is based on the argument that exclusionary practices violate the Constitution's guarantee of the right to social assistance under section 27(1)(c), and that the eligibility criteria and stagnant value of the grant represent unconstitutional retrogression.
• Since 2020, the SRD grant has provided R350 per month to South Africans to combat extreme poverty and hunger, but its impact has been diminished by inflation, a decrease in the number of recipients, and poor administration.

APA

iej_admin (2024). Litigating the Right to Social Assistance: The SRD grant court case. Institute for Economic Justice. https://iej.org.za/resource/policy-brief/srd-court-case-litigating-the-right-to-social-assistance/

Chicago

iej_admin. Litigating the Right to Social Assistance: The SRD grant court case. Institute for Economic Justice, 2024. https://iej.org.za/resource/policy-brief/srd-court-case-litigating-the-right-to-social-assistance/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=iej_admin |title=Litigating the Right to Social Assistance: The SRD grant court case |publisher=Institute for Economic Justice |date=14 February 2024 |url=https://iej.org.za/resource/policy-brief/srd-court-case-litigating-the-right-to-social-assistance/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{iejadmin2024litigating, author = {iej\_admin}, title = {{Litigating the Right to Social Assistance: The SRD grant court case}}, institution = {Institute for Economic Justice}, year = {2024}, month = feb, url = {https://iej.org.za/resource/policy-brief/srd-court-case-litigating-the-right-to-social-assistance/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }