welfare' and work in south africa

University of Oxford Centre for the Analysis of South African Social Policy

‘Welfare’ and Work in South Africa

Rebecca Surender

University of Oxford


The SA Social Security System

The main source of cash transfers in SA is the social assistance (social grants system)

One of the most comprehensive in the Developing world with grants for disabled people (Disability Grant), children with poor carers (Child Support Grant), older people (old age grant), disabled children (Care Dependency Grant), and fostered children (Foster Child Grant)

By mid 2008 almost 13 million grants were being paid Covering over 28% of the population Amounting to 3.5% of GDP

The SA Social Security System

However, for those able bodied people of working age who are not in work, there is no social assistance support

The main provision for the unemployed is the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) which provides only very limited cover and only to those who have recently been in work


Dependency Culture Thesis

The dependency culture thesis (in simplified form) argues that there is the emergence of communities where the adults have little or no attachment to the labour market, where paid work is not valued and where individuals are content, in the long term, to derive their income from state transfers (Murray 1984, Murray 1996, Mead 1992)

A ‘culture of dependency’ emerges and this is transmitted inter-generationally to children who see no working role models and so ‘inherit’ this tendency to ‘dependency’

The individuals exhibiting the dependency culture become cut off from mainstream values and so are said to be a moral ‘underclass’

‘Welfare’ and social assistance are thus seen as a dis-benefit

Our Study Our Study examines:

The nature and strength of attachment to the labour market amongst grant recipients

The opportunities and barriers to employment they face

Whether there is evidence of a culture of dependency among grant recipients

Methodology 2 components – conducted between 2006 - 2008

a survey to compare the attitudes of those in and outside the formal labour Market. Developed module included in the HSRCs South African Social Attitudes Survey (a cross-sectional nationally representative sample) 2,939 respondents.

a qualitative study consisting of 39 focus groups across the Western Cape and Eastern Cape provinces - 386 interviewees

We focused on 2 grants – the CSG and the DG because: They are the main grants available to those of working

age They’ve each been the subject of similar recent

debates about perverse incentives


Employment and Unemployment in South

Africa In September 2007, unemployment in

South Africa (using the official definition) stood at 23% (Stats SA 2007)

If we include discouraged workers the figure is estimated at between 36% and 41%

Labour market participation (absorption) rate was 42.7% (employed people as a percentage of working age people) BUT this includes informal sector and (very) part time work


Have people grown accustomed to

unemployment?


Valuing Work

Valuing Work “There are no jobs. You can have R200 in

hand, you go up and down using it for transport looking for work until the money’s finished. Still no job. You sacrifice buying even food in the house, save the R200 to look for work. There are not jobs, no domestic work, no factory work” (Female, CSG, Mdantsane)

“We don’t know what to do, but we know we will do anything if they give us a chance…we are all starving here and we are desperate…” (Male, DG, Mncotsho)

Job seeking and Barriers to Employment

81% of unemployed survey respondents were looking for work

90% of employed survey respondents would immediately look for work if they lost their job

81% of Black African unemployed respondents willing to move to find work

80% of Black African respondents willing to get training if they became unemployed

Barriers to Finding work No jobs! Not enough qualifications or

experience Transport costs

Employment agencies Social networks

No means of affordable transport

“We have to use public transport which costs money and leaving children behind – so it is difficult for us to hear if there is a factory offering jobs in Parow” (Female, CSG, Crossroads)

“…The money that you use for transport makes a

significant impact on the grant itself. Sometimes when you do not get a job you feel that you have wasted the money…that is why most people end up sitting instead of going and look for jobs”” (Male CSG, Crossroads)

“The taxi fare is R20 every day…you would end up working

only for the taxi fare” (Female, CSG, Mncotsho Village )



Moving to find Work

Moving for Work “At least here you can find some things on the road –

some scrap metals and other things which you can sell. There is nothing back home” (Male, DG, Makhaza).

“It is better here because there are more people who can buy your fruits and veg or sweets or whatever you may have…there, you can sit and no one will pass your stall for hours” (Female, CSG, Khayelitsha)

BUT …. “It made sense before, but now there are no jobs

anywhere…it is the same here as back there” (Male, CSG, Old Crossroads)



Not worth working?


Should the unemployed receive social assistance?


Do grants discourage people from working?


Do people receiving grants need the help?


More spend on social grants?

Grants for the Unemployed?

“I think that government should introduce a grant for people who don’t have jobs so hunger amongst people would cease”(Female, CSG, Langa).

“The government must support those people who are not working so that they can be able to buy food…since they are hungry they must it get it” (Male, DG, Khayelitsha).

“We are desperate…we need it” (Female, CSG, Mncotsho).


Grants for the Unemployed?

“People say that once you get money you relax – but I don’t agree with that. That money makes you want more – it will encourage people to look for jobs, even open a small business”(Male, CSG, Old Crossroads).

“I think that would be a right thing to do because the reason why we have so much crime is because people are not working – at least people will be able to buy food…people do bad things not that they want to buy drugs, but because they are starving” (Male, DG, Makhaza).

“It will be a right thing because it will stop this cruelty. We don’t get

along with each other because of starvation. People are jealous of one another. If they see you with Shoprite groceries because you have got your CSG, people become very jealous…I think a grant for everyone is good because it brings back love to the people since everyone gets something” (Female, CSG, Makhaza).


Grants not a disincentive “There’s no way you won’t want to work in order to live on

R190 a month. When you work, you earn more than that. Yes we are hungry, we are used to poverty, but there’s no way you won’t work only to depend on R190. By the time the R190 comes, your child needs a multitude of things from milk to shoes. You buy shoes and other small things, after that it’s finished” (Female CSG, Mdantsane).

“There is no one who can refuse a job just because she gets

the child support grant – because the money is very little. Like for instance some people here have said they only get a grant for one child, how would that be comparable to a salary if you were to get a job – it is nothing” (Female CSG, Makhaza).


Grants not a disincentive “I really don’t think that a person can be lazy just because

they receive a grant… I really don’t think anyone could not look for a job only because they receive the CSG…the people that say these things cannot know how we are suffering” (Male CSG, Mdantsane)

“A grant my sister is a last resort. After you have tried all

avenues. So its not gonna change once you start getting a grant. The reality is that there are no jobs. So people get discouraged, because they have no where else to look, they decide to sit down and rely on this grant. (Male CSG, East London)


Conclusion False dichotomy to place social grants and

paid work in opposition to each other Both those in or out of work placed a high

value on paid work All agreed that paid work conferred dignity,

personal satisfaction and social integration The unemployed were extremely motivated to

get work The unemployed hadn’t got used to the idea

that being out of work was ‘normal’ High level of work commitment demonstrate

by wide scale levels of economic migration

Conclusion Grant recipients did not subscribe to a distinct

dependency culture but to the same values, beliefs and aspirations as others

It is not the motivational characteristics of the unemployed or the arrangements of the grant system that account for their unemployment or grant status – but structural economic conditions

Overwhelming support for a grant for the unemployed – majority in favour even if it means higher taxes

Unemployed people deserve and desperately need help

welfare' and work in south africa

Government & Nonprofit