A Basic Income Grant for South AfricaGuy Standing, Michael Samson This book provides a critical analysis of the feasibility and impact of a universal basic income grant for South Africans, which has been discussed extensively in parliament and the media for the past two years. The authors assess how comprehensive social security reform, including a universal grant, will impact on the severe inequality in the country and promote economic growth and employment. Their research reveals that it is affordable, and they argue that it would reduce the criminality that is associated with poverty and inequality. The implications for women and children and for the black majority would be considerable. At the Presidential Jobs Summit in 1998 COSATU negotiated an agreement with the government to investigate a universal social grant for all South Africans -- the Basic Income Grant. Government policy-makers, civil society stakeholders and South African and international thinkers recognised the merit of addressing the problem of poverty directly and efficiently. In March 2002 the South African government's Committee of Inquiry into Comprehensive Social Security completed its evaluation of policy options for addressing the severe levels of poverty afflicting the country. Accepting the findings of research commissioned from the Economic Policy Research Institute, the Committee's report stated that the Basic Income Grant has the potential, more than any other possible social protection intervention, to reduce poverty and promote human development and sustainable livelihoods'. This book provides an accessible collection of the current research on the issue, with chapters by both proponents and critics of the Basic Income Grant. Some of the issues discussed include: How can the grant be financed? In what ways will the grant promote job creation, economic growth and social development? And will the government demonstrate the political will to implement what is likely to be the single most effective policy for reducing poverty and eradicating destitution? |
Contents
The South African solidarity grant | 7 |
Why a universal income grant in South Africa should be financed | 39 |
The politics of a basic income grant in South Africa 19962002 | 56 |
A universal income grant scheme for South Africa An empirical | 77 |
The BIG coalition in South Africa Making it happen | 102 |
Current debates around BIG The political and socioeconomic | 120 |
Common terms and phrases
additional apartheid average Basic Income Grant benefits BIG Coalition billion Black Sash budget burden campaign Cape Town chapter Child Support Grant civil society commitment comprehensive social security Constitution COSATU cost debate Department Disability Grant domestic workers economic growth effect employment Figure financed fiscal household income household poverty impact implementation income tax income transfers indirect taxes individuals issue job creation Jobs Summit labour market levels living macro-economic means test means-tested measures old age pension organisations per-capita political poor households population poverty alleviation poverty gap poverty line programmes proposed quintile recommendations reduce reform remittances result revenue scheme sector social assistance Social Development social protection social security system Solidarity Grant South Africa Statistics South Africa strategy take-up rate targeted Taylor Committee Taylor Report trade unions Treatment Action Campaign unemployed universal grant universal income grant wage welfare
Popular passages
Page 149 - Government of the Republic of South Africa and Others v Grootboom and Others (Grootboom) 2001 (1) SA 46 (CC), 2000 (1 1) BCLR 1 169 (Grootboom).