MEMO ON TREASURY AND PRESIDENCY PROPOSALS TO REPLACE THE SRD GRANT

The Institute for Economic Justice (IEJ) critiques proposals from the South African National Treasury (NT) and the Presidency to replace the Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant, which expires in March 2023. The IEJ argues that NT's plans to introduce targeted jobseekers, household, and caregivers grants are regressive, unconstitutional, and administratively unworkable, as they would exclude millions of poor people. The memo further challenges NT's claims of unaffordability, suggesting that the government has ignored progressive tax options and the net cost benefits of grants.

• The National Treasury (NT) proposes replacing the R350 SRD grant with a combination of targeted grants—specifically jobseekers, household, and caregivers grants—which the IEJ claims would exclude millions of poor people and are "regressive, unworkable and unconstitutional".
• The NT's proposed jobseekers grant is based on the premise that unemployment in South Africa can be solved by facilitating job searches, which the IEJ describes as "fantasy" because unemployment is structural. The IEJ argues that such a grant would create expensive and cumbersome administrative hurdles, potentially excluding those most in need.
• The IEJ strongly opposes the reintroduction of a household grant, arguing it is "anti-poor" because it allocates only one grant per household rather than individual grants. This approach could deepen gender power imbalances and gender-based violence (GBV) by increasing dependency on the household head.
• The proposed caregivers grant is criticized for potentially being restricted to only 1.5 million women with children under two or in late pregnancy, which would exclude the majority of the approximately 7 million caregivers and 4 million caregivers currently receiving the SRD grant.
• The Presidency's proposals include several targeting mechanisms that the IEJ deems unworkable or discriminatory, such as a spousal means test, using airtime or insurance policy purchases as means tests, and utilizing unreliable SARS and UIF databases for employment tests.
• The IEJ disputes the National Treasury's claims that extending the SRD grant is unaffordable, noting that NT ignores the net cost of grants (which is lower than gross cost due to VAT returns and clawbacks) and a tax revenue surplus since 2020 estimated at over R200 billion.
• The IEJ argues that the National Treasury's financing analysis is ideologically driven, as it dismisses progressive tax options like a wealth tax or a Social Security Tax (SST) while favoring regressive options like raising VAT.

APA

Institute for Economic Justice (2022). MEMO ON TREASURY AND PRESIDENCY PROPOSALS TO REPLACE THE SRD GRANT. https://iej.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Final-Memo-on-proposals-to-replace-the-SRD-grant.pdf

Chicago

Institute for Economic Justice. MEMO ON TREASURY AND PRESIDENCY PROPOSALS TO REPLACE THE SRD GRANT. 2022. https://iej.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Final-Memo-on-proposals-to-replace-the-SRD-grant.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Institute for Economic Justice |title=MEMO ON TREASURY AND PRESIDENCY PROPOSALS TO REPLACE THE SRD GRANT |date=7 September 2022 |url=https://iej.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Final-Memo-on-proposals-to-replace-the-SRD-grant.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{instituteforeconomicjustice2022memo, author = {{Institute for Economic Justice}}, title = {{MEMO ON TREASURY AND PRESIDENCY PROPOSALS TO REPLACE THE SRD GRANT}}, institution = {Institute for Economic Justice}, year = {2022}, month = sep, url = {https://iej.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Final-Memo-on-proposals-to-replace-the-SRD-grant.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }