Abstract:
The child-support grant is one of the social assistance programmes, aimed at alleviating poverty. It is guided by the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) Act 09 of 2004 and Social Assistance Act 13 of 2004. Social assistance programmes have created dependency on government and the supporting legislatures have a gap in terms of ensuring that people do not become fully dependant on hand-outs from the government. The aim of this research was to gain an understanding of the ramifications of the Social Assistance Act 13 of 2004 on the Social Assistance Programmes, based on the child-support grant, at Ha-Mutsha area in Vhembe District, Limpopo Province. The purpose of the study was to recommend solutions to discourage dependability on social assistance programmes. This study implemented a quantitative approach, as it offers high level of statistics and high level of consistency by descriptive cross-sectional survey. Data was composed by a questionnaire consisting of four sections; namely, demographic information of the respondents, the significance of the child-support grant, the intentions and ramifications of the Social Assistance Act 13 of 2004 on Social Assistance Programmes, based on the child-support grant and solutions against the dependency syndrome on Social Assistance programmes. Three major questions were asked; namely, what is the intention and significance of the child-support grant? What are the ramifications of the Social Assistance Act 13 of 2004, on Social Assistance Programmes, based on the child-support grant? What are the strategies to prevent or discourage the dependency syndrome on the Social Assistance programme? The population of the study were both males and females aged 16-59 years who were beneficiaries of the social assistance programme, as well as between 9-17 years, who were recipients of the grant. Structured questionnaires were used for data collection, checked and scrutinised using the Statistical Package of Social Sciences version 27. Descriptive statistics, which comprise of the following was used to scrutinise the data: standard deviation, mean and frequencies. Chi-square test was used to group the variables in order to check the relationship. Data was obtainable through graphs and tables. The findings of the study will be useful in government departments, more especially Department of Social Development and community members for adequate interventions.
