Parliament’s Select Committee on Social Services has urged the Department of Home Affairs to embark on a drive to educate refugees about the social grants they can access. The department was presenting data to the committee on preparations it has made to provide social assistance to refugees.
The Chief Director for Asylum Seekers Management in the department, Ms Lindile Kgasi, says a refugee is entitled to the same basic health services and basic primary education that is available to the inhabitants of South Africa. It is against this backdrop that the department provides social assistance to refugees.
The department spelt out to members of the committee what social assistance was available to refugees, stressing that the social assistance was only available to refugees, not asylum seekers. This assistance includes social grants for aged refugees, as well as children whose parents are not financially stable.
Even though the grant is provided by the Department of Social Development, the Department of Home Affairs has a key role to play, as it arranges for the completion of a means test form by all those who are granted refugee status in South Africa. This happens at the Refugee Reception Offices when they collect confirmation of their status. The department said it issued Identity Documents to refugees, to make it easier for them to apply for social grants. But this was not easy, the department told MPs, because refugees often struggled to produce a child’s birth certificate to apply for the grant.
Ms Kgasi said refugees were not registered in the Unemployment Insurance Fund database of the Department of Labour, making it difficult for the Department of Social Development to verify their income and employment history for the means test.
Ms Kgasi added that providing social assistance to refugees could act as a “pull” factor to South Africa thus exerting more pressure on the limited resources and capacity. Members of the Committee welcomed the presentation as they stated that it would make the refugees aware of what they were entitled to, but warned the department it would need ways to combat corruption in the social assistance sector.
Teaching refugees about social grants
