- An expert panel says there is no proof that social grants breed a dependency culture or syndrome.
- According to the panel, this perception is not based on evidence.
- This was revealed in a virtual launch of the report on basic income support for 18- to 60-year-olds.
An independent panel of experts has found that there is no dependency culture or syndrome borne out of social grants by those who receive it.
This was revealed on Monday when the Department of Social Development launched a research report on basic income support for people aged between 18 and 60 years old and also discussed the findings of the report during a webinar.
The webinar was a collaboration between the department, the International Labour Organisation and the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Wits School of Governance Professor Alex van den Heever said there was no evidence to support the view that a dependency culture or syndrome existed in relation to social grants as they existed now or was likely to exist in relation to an implemented Basic Income Support grant.
He said negative forms of dependency were commonly raised as a risk associated with social transfers, especially those that benefitted working-age adults.
"... in reviewing the extensive evidence available, we find that social transfers underwrite job search and the costs of participating in any demand (side) employment activation interventions for labour force participants".
He explained:
He added that these positive effects of social assistance, transferred to households and therefore reflected enabling features of income support such as promoting economic and social participation and agency on the part of recipients.
"People have perceptions about dependency (and) they are not necessarily based on evidence or based on an understanding of what really happens and that is what we try to look at."
He said:
Development Economist Professor Stephen Devereux added that there was strong evidence from around the world that dependency culture or dependency syndrome with social grants was very low.
Therefore, it was not easy for people to survive just on social grants, he said.
He further said if the evidence was strong that dependency syndrome was not really a problem with social grants or social security, the perception that it is, was important to address.
He further explained that the perception tended to get inflated by the media or by stories that people had heard about someone living on social grants who was, for example, "wasting the money".
"When you hear that kind of story, it tends to prejudice you against the millions of other people that are using those grants responsibly and need those grants literally to survive.
"So we must keep perspective and realise how important the grants are," he said.
The webinar continues.
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