{"id":211390,"date":"2021-12-13T15:52:05","date_gmt":"2021-12-13T13:52:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/experts-recommend-basic-income-support-for-unemployed-citizens\/"},"modified":"2021-12-13T15:52:05","modified_gmt":"2021-12-13T13:52:05","slug":"experts-recommend-basic-income-support-for-unemployed-citizens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/experts-recommend-basic-income-support-for-unemployed-citizens\/","title":{"rendered":"Experts recommend Basic Income Support for unemployed citizens"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

A team of experts on Basic Income Support (BIS) has recommended that government gradually implement a basic income grant, starting with the existing COVID-19 Social Relief of Distress Grant being institutionalised and forming a platform for an expanded system of BIS.<\/p>\n

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 South Africa.<\/p>\n

Presenting the report during a webinar on Monday, panel chair, Professor Alex van den Heever, said if implemented carefully and incrementally, the panel believed that what they have proposed will not incur severe trade-offs in relation to competing social programmes, economic sustainability and the fiscal position of government.<\/p>\n

\u201cIncome 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe 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,\u201d Van den Heever said.<\/p>\n

He said the panel did, however, find that the Social Relief of Distress grant introduced, as part of the COVID19 package, involves manageable trade-offs in relation to the important advantages offered.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe therefore recommend that the existing COVID-SRD be institutionalised and form the platform for an expanded system of Basic Income Support, which can then be improved incrementally over time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Van den Heever said the panel views money incomes as a key to thriving societies.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithout access to money incomes, the resulting social exclusion is severe, disabling and harmful to agency. This harm extends to dependents who are not expected to form part of labour market. Through our work, we confirm that income poverty in SA is so pervasive that more than half households live in poverty.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll households in the lowest deciles fall below the food poverty line equivalent to a monthly value of R595 in 2021. Over 90% of houses living in decile three are below the poverty line, equivalent to a monthly value of R860,\u201d the Professor said.<\/p>\n

Delivering her remarks during the webinar, Minister of Social Development, Lindiwe Zulu, said that the Expert Panel Report on BIS forms an important element of the department\u2019s ongoing efforts to institutionalise Basic Income Support.<\/p>\n

She said the panel\u2019s report reinforces the need to invoke both courage and science to sustain an intelligent dialogue on Basic Income Support.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen delivering this year\u2019s Nelson Mandela Memorial Lecture, President Cyril Ramaphosa challenged us to be brave when speaking about these matters.  <\/p>\n

\u201cSooner rather than later, dialogues must come to an end and piloting and implementation must start to define the reason we started this conversation just over 20 years ago,\u201d the Minister said.<\/p>\n

In light of the fiscal constraints, the Minister said this is the best opportunity for the report to demonstrate how legitimate BIS can be innovated to protect those who need it, namely those between the ages of 18 and 59.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is in this context that our efforts must be targeted at improving the state of the people where they live. I am pleased to receive the Expert Panel Report on Basic Income Support today. This report is now an integral part of our policy engagement arsenal,\u201d Zulu said. \u2013 SAnews.gov.za<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A team of experts on Basic Income Support (BIS) has recommended that government gradually implement a basic income grant, starting with the existing COVID-19 Social Relief of Distress Grant being institutionalised and forming a platform for an expanded system of BIS. The expert panel was established as part of an International Labour Organisation (ILO) initiative, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":211391,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[38678],"class_list":{"0":"post-211390","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-south-africa","8":"tag-sanews","9":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/experts-recommend-basic-income-support-for-unemployed-citizens.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211390"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211390\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/211391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}