Submission on the draft Social Relief of Distress grant regulations

The Institute for Economic Justice (IEJ) submitted a critique of the 2026 draft amendments to the Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant regulations, arguing that the amendments fail to address systemic barriers to accessibility and the inadequacy of the grant's value.

• The IEJ identifies several systemic flaws in the SRD grant regulations that lead to the unconstitutional exclusion of millions of eligible beneficiaries. These include the restriction of applications to an English-only online platform, a grant value of R370 that is significantly below the R855 food poverty line, and a means-test threshold of R624 that excludes people living in food poverty.
• The IEJ criticizes the government's reliance on bank and database verification (including UIF, SARS, and NSFAS) as invasive and inaccurate due to outdated data, advocating instead for the use of self-declarations combined with random audits.
• While the IEJ supports the extension of the SRD grant's applicability to March 2027, it warns that this period will expire before the Basic Income Support (BIS) policy is presented to Cabinet in March 2027, potentially creating a gap in social protection coverage.
• The IEJ recommends that the Department of Social Development (DSD) expand regulation amendments to remove systemic exclusions, extend the regulations beyond one year to align with the BIS implementation timeline, and work with the National Treasury to increase the grant value and adjust the means-test threshold to the upper-bound poverty line.

APA

Institute for Economic Justice (2026). Submission on the draft Social Relief of Distress grant regulations. https://iej.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/IEJ-Submission-on-amended-regs-2026-1-1.pdf

Chicago

Institute for Economic Justice. Submission on the draft Social Relief of Distress grant regulations. 2026. https://iej.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/IEJ-Submission-on-amended-regs-2026-1-1.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |author=Institute for Economic Justice |title=Submission on the draft Social Relief of Distress grant regulations |date=6 March 2026 |url=https://iej.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/IEJ-Submission-on-amended-regs-2026-1-1.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{instituteforeconomicjustice2026submission, author = {{Institute for Economic Justice}}, title = {{Submission on the draft Social Relief of Distress grant regulations}}, publisher = {Institute for Economic Justice}, year = {2026}, month = mar, url = {https://iej.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/IEJ-Submission-on-amended-regs-2026-1-1.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }