Sustainable Solutions: Introducing Work Placement as an Eligibility Criterion for the Disability Grant in South Africa

It is a well-established fact that adequate social security measures are used as a tool to allow persons a measure of financial security and support in the event of certain contingencies. In South Africa, the disability grant is intended to be income replacement for persons with disabilities who are unable to work as a result of their disability. Persons with disabilities represent approximately 6% of the population of South Africa. However, they only represent an average of 1% of the workforce in South Africa. This means that persons with disabilities are proportionally underrepresented in the workforce. As of 31 March 2024, there were 19.1 million social grants paid monthly in South Africa. Of these, 13.2 million are the child support grant (paid to the caregivers of children under 18 years of age), 4 million are the older persons grant (paid to persons over 60 years of age) and 1.06 million are the disability grant. The disability grant is thus the third largest group of social grant recipients and is the only one of the top three groups of persons who are of working age (ie aged 18 – 59). The aim of the paper is to consider measures to reduce growth in the number of disability grants paid in South Africa and simultaneously increase the number of persons with disabilities in employment.