Welfare and Work in South Africa

1
Welfare and Work in South Africa

• Rebecca Surender
• University of Oxford

2
The SA Social Security System

• The main source of cash transfers in SA is the
  social assistance (social grants system)
• One of the most comprehensive in the Developing
  world with grants for disabled people (Disability
  Grant), children with poor carers (Child Support
  Grant), older people (old age grant), disabled
  children (Care Dependency Grant), and fostered
  children (Foster Child Grant)
• By mid 2008 almost 13 million grants were being
  paid
• Covering over 28 of the population
• Amounting to 3.5 of GDP

3
The SA Social Security System

• However, for those able bodied people of working
  age who are not in work, there is no social
  assistance support
• The main provision for the unemployed is the
  Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) which provides
  only very limited cover and only to those who
  have recently been in work

4
Dependency Culture Thesis

• The dependency culture thesis (in simplified
  form) argues that there is the emergence of
  communities where the adults have little or no
  attachment to the labour market, where paid work
  is not valued and where individuals are content,
  in the long term, to derive their income from
  state transfers (Murray 1984, Murray 1996, Mead
  1992)
• A culture of dependency emerges and this is
  transmitted inter-generationally to children who
  see no working role models and so inherit this
  tendency to dependency
• The individuals exhibiting the dependency culture
  become cut off from mainstream values and so are
  said to be a moral underclass
• Welfare and social assistance are thus seen as
  a dis-benefit

5
Our Study

• Our Study examines
• The nature and strength of attachment to the
  labour market amongst grant recipients
• The opportunities and barriers to employment they
  face
• Whether there is evidence of a culture of
  dependency among grant recipients

6
Methodology

• 2 components conducted between 2006 - 2008
• a survey to compare the attitudes of those in and
  outside the formal labour Market. Developed
  module included in the HSRCs South African Social
  Attitudes Survey (a cross-sectional nationally
  representative sample) 2,939 respondents.
• a qualitative study consisting of 39 focus groups
  across the Western Cape and Eastern Cape
  provinces - 386 interviewees
• We focused on 2 grants the CSG and the DG
  because
• They are the main grants available to those of
  working age
• Theyve each been the subject of similar recent
  debates about perverse incentives

7
Employment and Unemployment in South Africa

• In September 2007, unemployment in South Africa
  (using the official definition) stood at 23
  (Stats SA 2007)
• If we include discouraged workers the figure is
  estimated at between 36 and 41
• Labour market participation (absorption) rate was
  42.7 (employed people as a percentage of working
  age people) BUT this includes informal sector and
  (very) part time work

8
Have people grown accustomed to unemployment?
9
Valuing Work
10
Valuing Work

• There are no jobs. You can have R200 in hand,
  you go up and down using it for transport looking
  for work until the moneys finished. Still no
  job. You sacrifice buying even food in the
  house, save the R200 to look for work. There are
  not jobs, no domestic work, no factory work
  (Female, CSG, Mdantsane)
• We dont know what to do, but we know we will
  do anything if they give us a chancewe are all
  starving here and we are desperate (Male, DG,
  Mncotsho)

11
Job seeking and Barriers to Employment

• 81 of unemployed survey respondents were looking
  for work
• 90 of employed survey respondents would
  immediately look for work if they lost their job
• 81 of Black African unemployed respondents
  willing to move to find work
• 80 of Black African respondents willing to get
  training if they became unemployed

12
Barriers to Finding work

• No jobs!
• Not enough qualifications or experience
• Transport costs
• Employment agencies
• Social networks

13
No means of affordable transport

• We have to use public transport which costs
  money and leaving children behind so it is
  difficult for us to hear if there is a factory
  offering jobs in Parow (Female, CSG, Crossroads)
  
•  
• The money that you use for transport makes a
  significant impact on the grant itself. Sometimes
  when you do not get a job you feel that you have
  wasted the moneythat is why most people end up
  sitting instead of going and look for jobs
  (Male CSG, Crossroads)
•  
• The taxi fare is R20 every dayyou would end up
  working only for the taxi fare (Female, CSG,
  Mncotsho Village )

14
Moving to find Work
15
Moving for Work

• At least here you can find some things on the
  road some scrap metals and other things which
  you can sell. There is nothing back home (Male,
  DG, Makhaza).
•  It is better here because there are more people
  who can buy your fruits and veg or sweets or
  whatever you may havethere, you can sit and no
  one will pass your stall for hours (Female, CSG,
  Khayelitsha)
•  
• BUT .
• It made sense before, but now there are no jobs
  anywhereit is the same here as back there
  (Male, CSG, Old Crossroads)

16
Not worth working?
17
Should the unemployed receive social assistance?
18
Do grants discourage people from working?
19
Do people receiving grants need the help?
20
More spend on social grants?
21
Grants for the Unemployed?

• I think that government should introduce a grant
  for people who dont have jobs so hunger amongst
  people would cease(Female, CSG, Langa).
•  
• The government must support those people who are
  not working so that they can be able to buy
  foodsince they are hungry they must it get it
  (Male, DG, Khayelitsha).
•  
• We are desperatewe need it (Female, CSG,
  Mncotsho).

22
Grants for the Unemployed?

• People say that once you get money you relax
  but I dont agree with that. That money makes you
  want more it will encourage people to look for
  jobs, even open a small business(Male, CSG, Old
  Crossroads).
• I think that would be a right thing to do
  because the reason why we have so much crime is
  because people are not working at least people
  will be able to buy foodpeople do bad things not
  that they want to buy drugs, but because they are
  starving (Male, DG, Makhaza).
•  
• It will be a right thing because it will stop
  this cruelty. We dont get along with each other
  because of starvation. People are jealous of one
  another. If they see you with Shoprite groceries
  because you have got your CSG, people become very
  jealousI think a grant for everyone is good
  because it brings back love to the people since
  everyone gets something (Female, CSG, Makhaza).

23
Grants not a disincentive

• Theres no way you wont want to work in order
  to live on R190 a month. When you work, you earn
  more than that. Yes we are hungry, we are used to
  poverty, but theres no way you wont work only
  to depend on R190. By the time the R190 comes,
  your child needs a multitude of things from milk
  to shoes. You buy shoes and other small things,
  after that its finished (Female CSG,
  Mdantsane).
•  
• There is no one who can refuse a job just
  because she gets the child support grant
  because the money is very little. Like for
  instance some people here have said they only get
  a grant for one child, how would that be
  comparable to a salary if you were to get a job
  it is nothing (Female CSG, Makhaza).

24
Grants not a disincentive

• I really dont think that a person can be lazy
  just because they receive a grant I really dont
  think anyone could not look for a job only
  because they receive the CSGthe people that say
  these things cannot know how we are suffering
  (Male CSG, Mdantsane)
•  
• A grant my sister is a last resort. After you
  have tried all avenues. So its not gonna change
  once you start getting a grant. The reality is
  that there are no jobs. So people get
  discouraged, because they have no where else to
  look, they decide to sit down and rely on this
  grant. (Male CSG, East London)
•  

25
Conclusion

• False dichotomy to place social grants and paid
  work in opposition to each other
• Both those in or out of work placed a high value
  on paid work
• All agreed that paid work conferred dignity,
  personal satisfaction and social integration
• The unemployed were extremely motivated to get
  work
• The unemployed hadnt got used to the idea that
  being out of work was normal
• High level of work commitment demonstrate by wide
  scale levels of economic migration

26
Conclusion

• Grant recipients did not subscribe to a distinct
  dependency culture but to the same values,
  beliefs and aspirations as others
• It is not the motivational characteristics of the
  unemployed or the arrangements of the grant
  system that account for their unemployment or
  grant status but structural economic conditions
  
• Overwhelming support for a grant for the
  unemployed majority in favour even if it means
  higher taxes
• Unemployed people deserve and desperately need
  help