comparatively well-off areas. Because of ICROP’s emphasis on rural communities, the poor in informal urban settlements do not get as much information about child grants as they need. Consequently, exclusion from the CSG remains high in urban formal and informal areas relative to other places. This may account for the higher level of exclusion among White, Indian/Asian and Coloured children. These groups are more urbanised. Since they seldom live in the poorest areas of the country, the initiatives put in place to expand CSG coverage have largely failed to reach them. Acknowledging this problem, SASSA’s Plan of Action undertook to extend the ICROP schedule to poor urban communities and improve advance communication of impending site visits as a means of addressing the increasingly urban nature of poverty in South Africa. This should help confront the perception that the CSG targets areas in which mostly Blacks live.
8.9 Education and training on the means test The Plan of Action outlines the need for education and training to enable grant administrators to apply the means test correctly. Since SASSA has automated the application of the means test, officials have little or no discretion on approving an application. Officials take and process all applications, and the SOCPEN system determines if an applicant’s income falls within the eligibility threshold. The challenge of the means test, therefore, may not lie so much with the level of training and skills of SASSA staff but with the public’s awareness of their right to apply for the child benefit. Confusion and lack of knowledge about the means test have consistently ranked as major drivers of self-exclusion from the CSG. Potential applicants who would otherwise be eligible do not apply for the grant in the belief that their income is too high to qualify. In the absence of knowledge about the means test, eligible people do not even attempt to register. SASSA has tried to engage this population in numerous ways. The Plan of Action highlighted the need for ongoing media and awareness campaigns among the public, especially as the means test threshold rises annually. SASSA’s efforts, however, have not resulted in sustained public awareness and education campaigns in areas of high exclusion from the CSG. SASSA’s communication strategy, therefore, has not completely addressed information gaps relating to the means test and other eligibility criteria. Local offices routinely handle calls from individuals asking questions relating to eligibility. Some of these questions reveal a fundamental misunderstanding of the purpose of the CSG. More structured and deliberate efforts are needed to close these persistent information gaps.
8.10 Education and training of government officials The 2014 Plan of Action called for the “training all government officials” on the means test. Whether this meant all officials across the public service or all SASSA officials is not readily apparent. Still, there is little evidence that the Agency would have the capacity to train all government officials on the eligibility criteria for social grants and the application process, including the alternative document provision. Neither has SASSA succeeded in the roll out of a national standardised training programme on the means test.
8.11 Collaboration with other departments SASSA’s Plan of Action of 2014 acknowledges the need to strengthen the relationship with other departments such as the Department of Health and Department of Basic Education, the absence of which limits their ability to integrate service provision.
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Removing Barriers to accessing child grants