Evaluation of policy regulating access to South African Social Security Agency's disability grants in Umlazi township

Abstract

The Social Assistance Act 13 of 2004 makes provision for social assistance in the form of older person's grant, disability grant, child support grant, foster care grant, war veteran grant, care dependency grant and social relief of distress. The provision of a disability grant is prescribed in Section 9 of the afore-mentioned Act which sets out the qualifying criteria for a disability grant which stipulates that the applicant for a disability grant should have attained the prescribed age at the time of application. The Act further prescribes that, owing to the applicant's physical or mental disability, which is unable to secure employment or profession to enable him/her to provide for his/her maintenance, may also submit an application. The purpose of the study was to "Evaluate the policy regulating access to South African Social Security Agency's disability grant in Umlazi Township". The focus is on the Umlazi Township in the eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality in the KwaZulu-Natal Province. The data collection techniques used in the collection of data was qualitative in nature. A semi-structured questionnaire with a mixture of a five-point Likert scale and open-ended questions was administered. The major findings of the study included the lack of policy for the disability grant, the lack of relevant training for staff and medical practitioners, the lack of community engagement and awareness, medical practitioners who use their discretion to make recommendations to the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) administrators, the risk of inclusion and exclusion errors caused by poor gate-keeping, the impact of poverty, unemployment and the chronic illnesses resulting to demand for disability grants.