CRISIS OF CARE: Sassa’s R2,400 Care Dependency Grant leaves parents of children with disabilities stretched thin
South Africa’s Care Dependency Grant is meant to provide additional support to families with special needs children, but many parents remain stretched to their limit amid rising costs and inaccessible public services. Experts and struggling parents have called for better system integration and dignified access to services to address the country’s slow pace of change.
South Africa's Care Dependency Grant is intended to provide extra assistance to families with children who have special needs, yet many parents find themselves unable to cope with rising costs and limited access to public services. Cleone Tigerls, a mother of three from Johannesburg, receives R2,400 monthly from the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) for her daughter Lamisha, who has been disabled since contracting streptococcal meningitis at age six.
Despite this support, Tigerls is overwhelmed by the demands of caring for Lamisha and fears the impact on her family's stability. She can't work due to concerns about leaving Lamisha unattended, and the family relies on her husband's job in the automotive industry, which is not stable. The monthly scholar transport cost for Lamisha, who attends a special needs school, is R1,200, amounting to half the grant.
Tigerls spends around R3,000 on food each month, often resorting to cheaper brands or borrowing money. She has requested help from the Department of Social Development but received only a single food parcel. Christina Mafunda, a mother of three in Marikana, receives the Care Dependency Grant for her daughter with Down's syndrome.
Like Tigerls, Mafunda struggles to afford healthcare for her child and worries about when her daughter will start school. Both mothers emphasize the need for better system integration and access to services, as the current Care Dependency Grant falls short of covering the full spectrum of expenses associated with raising a child with disabilities.
Written by urgent.news from Daily Maverick's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
