The Department of Social Development has lobbied Parliament's Portfolio Committee on Social Development to consider and adopt the Social Assistance Amendment Bill. The department wants the definition of the term "disability" in the Social Assistance Act to be changed to further regulate who is (or is not) eligible for a disability grant.
The Director-General of Social Development, Mr Vusi Madonsela, told committee members that the bill was partly an attempt to revisit the definition of disability and partly an attempt to curb fraud in the application of social disability grants.
In a presentation the department showed that there had recently been an exponential growth in applications for disability grants. In 2003/04 the uptake of disability grants increased to more than three times the department's projections.
A study commissioned by the department had showed that provinces defined and assessed disability differently, in some cases even providing access to a disability grant to people with chronic illness.
Members of the committee said that the bill seemed to be well designed to help curb current fraudulent activities, with regards to disability grants. However, they were concerned that there should not be any delays in processing applications for social grants. Members wanted to know what would happen to chronically ill people who had received disability grants.
The department assured members that mechanisms would be put in place to relieve those who relied on the disability grants, but were not disable. In 2006, the department developed the Harmonised Assessment Tool (HAT) on the assumption that the Department of Health would be responsible for determining what a disability was and who was disable.
According to the department, the implementation of the HAT would enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of the provision of the disability grants. Meanwhile, the committee has called on the public to submit written and oral presentations into the bill. The committee will also hold public hearings on the bill on 20 April.
Issued by: Parliament of South Africa
14 April 2010
Source: Parliament of South Africa (http://www.parliament.gov.za/)
