South Africa now has close to 19-million citizens surviving on permanent government social grants and it's costing the taxpayer more than R200-billion per year.

Additionally, an average of 8.5-million beneficiaries are receiving the R350 Covid-19 Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant, incurring an expenditure for the 2022/23 financial year of R30.2-billion.

Not all beneficiaries of the R350-grant are paid on time every month, and sometimes they are not paid at all, which means the total expenditure could be even higher.

Overall, the SA Social Security Agency (Sassa) pays more than 27-million beneficiaries monthly, accounting for about 45% of the country's population.

These figures were shared on Wednesday during a meeting of the Portfolio Committee on Social Development, who scrutinised the annual reports of the Department of Social Development and its entities.

The department's director-general, Linton Mchunu, said they were expanding their services to people with disabilities, victims of gender-based violence, the elderly, and those hit hard by Covid-19.

The number of social grants in payment increased from 18 677 339 at the end of March 2022 to 18 829 716 at the end of March 2023.

A total of R239-billion was made available to Sassa for the payment of social grants between April 2022 to March 2023.

Below is the monthly breakdown:

• April: R20.5-billion
• May: R20.5-billion
• June: R20.6-billion
• July: R20.6-billion
• Aug: R20.6-billion
• Sept: R20.7-billion
• Oct: R20.7-billion
• Nov: R20.7-billion
• Dec: R20.7-billion
• Jan: R20.7-billion
• Feb: R17.9-billion
• March: R14.3-billion

"Provision of social grants reduces poverty and contributes to the reduction of income inequality in the country, and empirical evidence shows that CSG [Child Support Grant] contributes to improved school attendance, educational attainment and access to food.

"Social grants proved to be the most effective mechanism available to government to cushion millions of the most vulnerable individuals and households from the dire socio-economic impact of Covid-19," Mchunu said.

He said there were policy proposals on a basic income support for those aged between 18 and 59.

This had been reviewed and finalised, and the stakeholder consultations were conducted.

Mchunu said a consultation report had been compiled.

Social Development Minister Lindiwe Zulu said: "The release of the statistics is very important to us. The population has grown to 62-million people. It is very important for the work we do. We are doing the most we can, but we know that it is still not enough.

"Receiving unqualified audit outcomes is a remarkable improvement from previous years. The ANC will stop at nothing to strengthen the relationship between the mandates of government and visibly improving the state of our communities."

In September, a "systems glitch" on the Postbank software affected thousands of social grant recipients, who spent days waiting for their social grants.

This error was a result of a "payment switch" to software that enables Postbank to connect to the BankservAfrica platform and process transactions through the Integrated Grant Payment System.

About 35% of grant recipients – 6.3-million people – receive their money through this system, which pays the money into Sassa/Postbank accounts.

According to Sassa, the overall number of beneficiaries paid across all payment platforms increased by 91 090 over the 12 months.

"The number of beneficiaries paid through IGPS (Sassa/SA Post Office Card) and Mzansi (Postbank) has decreased by 1 077 454 and 17 925, respectively, over the period from April 2022 to March 2023. Whereas, the beneficiaries paid through their own bank accounts increased by 1 186 469 over the same period," the Sassa presentation said.

The Democratic Alliance's Alexander Abrahams said the department spent a significant amount of its budget on social grants.

"This amount has increased, and will continue to increase annually, as more South Africans find themselves forced into the welfare system as a means of survival.

"This is not something to celebrate as President [Cyril] Ramaphosa and ANC have recently done throughout their 2019 Manifesto Review. It is actually an indictment on the ANC government through its failed employment and economic growth policies," she said.

The Inkatha Freedom Party's Liezl van der Merwe said the same audit problems were repeatedly recurring at the department.

"The inadequate oversight on grant and the administration, and there is also Sassa's inability to pay the right people,” she said.

Sassa CEO Busisiwe Memela-Khambula said the high unemployment rate of 32.9% increased the demand for the entity's services.