Improving the administration of disability grants in South Africa’s social security agency

Abstract

Improving the administration of disability grants in South Africa’s Social Security Agency was the primary focus of the study. Although the South African social security grant categories include the child support grant, older age persons’ grant, disability grant, grant-in-aid, care dependency grant, war veterans grant and the foster child grants, this study only focused on disability grants. In South Africa, fraud and maladministration are among the challenges impacting the quality of public service delivery. In terms of the study, the impact of this amongst other issues were investigated. The aim of the study was to improve the administration of disability grants in South Africa’s Social Security Agency, identify gaps and forward recommendations. The study adopted a mixed method approach using the SASSA offices in Gauteng, Western Cape, and the KwaZulu-Natal provinces. The data collection tools were interviews and questionnaires, while SPSS and computer software instruments were used to analyse and interpret the findings. This study’s original contribution was to improve the disability grant policy by introducing a more critical framework for addressing the disability grant issues that undermine the effective administration of disability grants at the selected South African Social Security Agencies. The contribution to the study was three-fold [1] Gaps in literature; [2] a conceptual analysis; and [3] Methodological/theoretical (statistics and interview contribution).