With a deepening global economic crisis, which also threatens to thrust more South Africans into poverty, there was keen expectation among social welfare lobbyists of significant increases in the welfare budget to alleviate the pain.
They were disappointed and are fuming that finance minister Trevor Manuel may have reneged on earlier promises by government and the ANC. Both the ANC manifesto and President Kgalema Motlanthe in his state of the nation address last week suggested that the child support grant would be extended to 15- year-olds and that there was support for it to be extended to 18-year-olds.
However, announcing the R86,4bn social development budget, Manuel said the R240 child support grant would now include 15-year-olds, but that extending this to 18-year-olds was being considered "subject to affordability".
Alison Tilley, who heads an alliance of groups, Acess - which is campaigning for social security issues regarding children - says the extension to 15-year-olds is "old news". It was announced last year and has already been implemented.
She says Motlanthe's support and the ANC manifesto "encouraged us to believe the government was finally taking this issue forward. It seems as though, while the majority party and the department of social development are convinced of the need for the roll out, treasury is swimming against the tide."
The issue also drew sharp criticism from the Black Sash, a social welfare lobby. "We do not understand why the minister is only considering extension of the child support grant at a time when a commitment is what is urgently needed by the nearly 2,5m children who fall through the security net just as they enter the vulnerable years of their adolescence," says Elroy Paulus, head of the organisation's budget unit. But Manuel's hand could be forced, as there is a judgment pending on the issue in the Johannesburg high court on whether the grant should be extended to 18-year-olds.
WHAT IT MEANS
 Manuel resists alliance calls for more
No grants for credit crisis lay offs
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Total expenditure on social welfare grew from R55,1bn in 2005/2006 to R76,6bn in 2008/2009, an average annual rate of 11,6%, and is expected to rise to R102,3bn in 2011/2012.
Social assistance is the largest portion of the department's budget, at 93%.
Some have also complained that the 5,5% increase for old-age pensions is well below current inflation of 10,3%.
Another concern, says Paulus, is the absence of support for workers laid off as a result of the financial crisis. He is also disappointed at the drop in the relief of distress grant. This often comes in the form of cash or food parcels. This year's allocation has been slashed from R624m last year to R135m.
"There is no explanation for this drop and we need government clarity on the issue," he says.
