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The impact of the social relief & distress grant on poverty in South Africa
This paper examines the impact of the Social Relief & Distress grant on poverty reduction in South Africa amidst the COVID-19 global pandemic. A large number of individuals live below the poverty line in South Africa and the lockdowns used to combat the spread of COVID-19 have resulted in more p...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English English |
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School of Economics
2025
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| _version_ | 1867613256506408960 |
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| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Fatch, Martha |
| author2 | Eyal, Katherine |
| author_browse | Eyal, Katherine Fatch, Martha |
| author_facet | Eyal, Katherine Fatch, Martha |
| author_sort | Fatch, Martha |
| collection | Thesis |
| description | This paper examines the impact of the Social Relief & Distress grant on poverty reduction in South Africa amidst the COVID-19 global pandemic. A large number of individuals live below the poverty line in South Africa and the lockdowns used to combat the spread of COVID-19 have resulted in more people living below the poverty line. This paper uses secondary data in South Africa, utilising all five waves of the NIDS-CRAM panel survey, with an initial sample frame of 7,073 participants. This data is used to estimate the impact of a new cash transfer on household poverty using a number of different techniques. In initial estimates, a strong negative correlation between receipt of the Social Relief & Distress grant and household poverty is observed, as expected. However, in multivariate analysis this negative association is reduced, with an effect found which is neither practically nor statistically significant. While the SRD could reduce some proportion of household poverty in certain samples, this effect is not large enough to meaningfully impact average household socio-economic status in South Africa. Increasing the grant size and broadening its reach could have a significant impact on household poverty and overall inequality. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/42184 |
| institution | University of Cape Town (South Africa) |
| language | English eng |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:33:15.376Z |
| license_str | Not specified — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| publishDateRange | 2025 |
| publishDateSort | 2025 |
| publisher | School of Economics |
| publisherStr | School of Economics |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| spelling | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/42184 The impact of the social relief & distress grant on poverty in South Africa Fatch, Martha Eyal, Katherine poverty social relief distress grant poverty This paper examines the impact of the Social Relief & Distress grant on poverty reduction in South Africa amidst the COVID-19 global pandemic. A large number of individuals live below the poverty line in South Africa and the lockdowns used to combat the spread of COVID-19 have resulted in more people living below the poverty line. This paper uses secondary data in South Africa, utilising all five waves of the NIDS-CRAM panel survey, with an initial sample frame of 7,073 participants. This data is used to estimate the impact of a new cash transfer on household poverty using a number of different techniques. In initial estimates, a strong negative correlation between receipt of the Social Relief & Distress grant and household poverty is observed, as expected. However, in multivariate analysis this negative association is reduced, with an effect found which is neither practically nor statistically significant. While the SRD could reduce some proportion of household poverty in certain samples, this effect is not large enough to meaningfully impact average household socio-economic status in South Africa. Increasing the grant size and broadening its reach could have a significant impact on household poverty and overall inequality. 2025-11-12T09:51:22Z 2025-11-12T09:51:22Z 2025 2025-11-12T09:48:13Z Thesis / Dissertation Masters MCom http://hdl.handle.net/11427/42184 en eng application/pdf School of Economics Faculty of Commerce University of Cape Town |
| spellingShingle | poverty social relief distress grant poverty Fatch, Martha The impact of the social relief & distress grant on poverty in South Africa |
| thesis_degree_str | Master's |
| title | The impact of the social relief & distress grant on poverty in South Africa |
| title_full | The impact of the social relief & distress grant on poverty in South Africa |
| title_fullStr | The impact of the social relief & distress grant on poverty in South Africa |
| title_full_unstemmed | The impact of the social relief & distress grant on poverty in South Africa |
| title_short | The impact of the social relief & distress grant on poverty in South Africa |
| title_sort | impact of the social relief amp distress grant on poverty in south africa |
| topic | poverty social relief distress grant poverty |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/11427/42184 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT fatchmartha theimpactofthesocialreliefampdistressgrantonpovertyinsouthafrica AT fatchmartha impactofthesocialreliefampdistressgrantonpovertyinsouthafrica |