The Department of Social Development (DSD) hopes to finalise the policy for a new Basic Income Support (BIS) grant by March 2027, getting it ready for implementation.
The BIS is the new social grant the government plans to use to replace the COVID-19 Social Relief of Distress grant, which has been extended far beyond its original intent.
The SRD grant was a R350 per month support grant, later lifted to R370, launched in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic to help qualifying South Africans weather the economic uncertainty at the time.
The department noted that the grant was only ever expected to be in effect for six months, but over 8 million recipients became dependent on the support.
The DSD characterised the billions spent on the grant as a “success” because it directly addressed poverty, noting that recipients mainly used the money to buy food, electricity, and clothing.
This, it said, then supported local economies.
“Research by multiple independent researchers also found the SRD grant to be well targeted and successful in reducing hunger, poverty and inequality while also enabling the participation of beneficiaries in job search and other economic activity,” it said.
Because of this, the national government, supported by the presidency, is moving to transform the SRD grant into a new Basic Income Support policy, which is currently being processed.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has long supported the new grant and, in his 2026 State of the Nation Address, promised that the rework of the new grant would happen this year.
