Just under 16 million South Africans received some form of social security grant from government last year, Social Development Minister, Bathabile Dlamini, revealed this in a response to a question in parliament.
The government paid out more than R109bn during 2013/14, she said.
Of the total 15 932 473 grant beneficiaries last year, 70% (11 125 946) received child support grants. A total of R39.6bn was paid out on child support grants during 2013/14.
Over the same period, R44.1bn was spent on old age grants – referred to as older person’s grants – to 2 969 933 beneficiaries.
It seems the number of beneficiaries is rising. Figures for the first quarter of this year (2014/15), show the number of beneficiaries is on the rise, according to the Dlamini’s response.
There were 16 242 196 grant recipients at the end of June, and the cost of providing their benefits up to that date was R29.3bn.
Just to show the steep increase, there were 2.5m social grant beneficiaries in 1998.