Experts recommend Basic Income Support for unemployed citizens
The panel of experts examined Basic Income Grant options for South Africa.
A TEAM of experts has recommended that the South African government gradually implement a basic income grant, which starts with the institutionalisation of the existing Covid-19 Social Relief of Distress Grant.
The expert panel was established as part of an International Labour Organisation (ILO) initiative, together with the Department of Social Development (DSD), to examine the salience and feasibility of Basic Income Grant options for the country.
Professor Alex van den Heever, the panel chair, made the comments during a webinar this week.
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“Income support in the form of a BIS framework for adults is necessary and no alternative measures could reasonably address the widespread and urgent income support needs of the relevant adults,” he explained.
“We also found that structural changes in the levels of poverty and inequality require programmes implemented at scale. But, given the prevailing fiscal and economic realities, we therefore propose that a phased approach to the implementation of BIS be considered, which recognises that the pace of moving to scale is contingent on being able to finance these expansions in a sustainable manner,” Van den Heever said.
He said the panel did, however, find that the Social Relief of Distress grant introduced, as part of the Covid-19 package, involves manageable trade-offs in relation to the important advantages offered.
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