Budget: Social services to receive bulk of state’s R1.56 trillion spend

National Treasury has budgeted R1.56 trillion in expenditure for the 2017/18 financial year.

According to the budget, social services will get the lion’s share, with R884 billion – the bulk of which will go to education (R320.5 billion).

Broken down, basic education gets R216.7 billion; university subsidies (R32 billion); and R15 billion will go to the National Student Financial Aid scheme.

Over the medium term, Treasury has earmarked even more money for higher education in the outer year of 2019/20. This is over and above the R32 billion in extra funds.

After debt service and post-school education, the fastest growing spending categories are health social development and community and economic infrastructure.

Going back to just the 2017/18 financial year, education is followed by local development and infrastructure (R195.8 billion) and health, which will get R187.5 billion.

Social protection in the form of grants will receive the least of the allocation, with R180 billion.