Social grant expenditure is expected to increase to R292-billion in the 2026/27 financial year as national budget makes way for increased grant earnings across the board.
Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana, however, forecasts lower social grant spending over the next three years.
Godongwana increased old age grant, disability grant, and care dependency grant by R85, taking it from R2315 to a solid R2400. War veterans will get R2420.
Child support and grant-in-aid will also be increased from R560 to R580, while the foster care grant increases to R1295.
According to the current numbers, over 26-million are benefitting from social grants. Child support grant is leading with 12.8-million beneficiaries, old age and military veteran grant beneficiaries are over 4-million, while beneficiaries to the disability grant are over 1-million.
“The old age and child support grants continue to drive expenditure growth, accounting for a combined 78% if the department’s total spending.
“To enable the administration and payment of these grants through the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA), R24.6-billion is allocated over the MTEF period to the Social Grants Administration subprogramme in the Social Security Policy and Administration programme,” said Godongwana.
SRD grant extended
The social relief distress (SRD) grant, which was founded to uplift financial pressures on the unemployed during the Covid-19 pandemic, has been extended until March 2027. More than 7-million people are benefitting from this grant.
An additional R36.4-billion has been added on the grant to see it through the next year, while treasury is still looking into other means of survival for the unemployed.
Social grants remain the largest part of the social development budget, with spending rising to R466.4-billion by 2028/29. However, costs are expected to decline over the medium term due to lower inflation and improved grant targeting, saving R2-billion in 2026/27 and R1-billion the following year.
Grants eligibility reviews
Godongwana emphasised that allocation to SASSA was made conditional, pushing the agency to tighten compliance on social grants. This also included undertaking more eligibility reviews for social grants.
“By December 2025, the agency had checked the bank accounts of about 6-milion clients and 8-million credit bureau clients.
“These checks flagged 291 581 grant beneficiaries for review. As a result of the review process and strict implementation of the sliding scale, which bases grant values on recipients’ incomes, grant amounts were adjusted for 8 599 disability and old age grant recipients in accordance with the eligibility criteria,” said Godongwana.
About R170.7-million is expected to be saved as 34 661 grants were cancelled in the 2025/26 financial year.
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