Social Assistance: A Reference Guide for Paralegals
This reference guide is part of a series of Black Sash guides for paralegals and other people and organisations who provide advice regarding people’s socio-economic rights. It draws on the Black Sash’s extensive experience of assisting people with difficulties in accessing social assistance – with a view to enriching your understanding of this area of law, the kinds of challenges
that can be faced and what can be done about them.
The guide has been designed to help you find answers to some of the questions you may have, by dedicating a separate chapter to each social grant or award. It also has an index which will help you find what you are looking for.
Social assistance laws continue to change, following the government’s commitments and advocacy from the public. To this end we include comment on issues and policies which we believe still need to be improved for us to be able to say that people in South Africa have access to integrated and comprehensive social assistance.
We hope to have captured in one publication as much up-to-date information as possible to help people in advice offices advise their clients – towards promoting efficient access to social assistance.
Download the guide (.pdf 2.6Mb)
Debt and Credit: A reference guide for paralegals
The guide is intended to assist paralegals and others – like priests, trade union representatives, and social workers – who give advice to vulnerable people struggling to make ends meet. The guide explains the terms and processes relating to debt and credit – such as over-indebtedness, court orders, negative listings, credit agreements and the role of the Credit Bureaus – as well as providing practical tips and templates for drawing up household budgets and assessing your financial and legal situation.
Download Debt and Credit: A reference guide for paralegals (revised December 2008)
“When the grant stops, the hope stops"
The impact of the lapsing of the child support grant at age 15: Testimonies from caregivers of children aged 15 to 18
A Report for Parliament compiled by the Children’s Institute (UCT), Black Sash, and ACESS and released on 21 October 2009.
We wanted to find out what happens to children and their families when the Child Support Grant (CSG) stops at the age of 15; to show this evidence to Parliament; and to appeal to Parliament for assistance in ensuring that the CSG is extended to18.Download “When the grant stops, the hope stops.”
Breaking the Poverty Trap: Financing a Basic Income Grant in South Africa
Nearly a decade after South Africa’s historic transition to democracy, pervasive poverty and inequality pose the greatest threat to human dignity and social cohesion. Roughly half of our population – including two thirds of all children – continues to live in poverty, despite a significant expansion of social service delivery. Our current social security system has shown the effectiveness of income transfers in combating poverty. However, the social safety net inherited from the apartheid era was modelled on the “welfarist” programmes developed for industrialised countries, which assume close to full employment and are designed to address special contingencies and fluctuations in the economic cycle.
Furthermore, the "apartheid welfare state" was initially intended to respond to the material conditions of the white population, which were very different from those currently facing the majority of the population. As a result, South Africa's social security system leaves more than half of the poor without access to social assistance. It is therefore insufficient to support local economic development or sustainable livelihoods in communities facing long-term, structural unemployment and overlapping dimensions of poverty. Furthermore, poverty – particularly income poverty – often prevents people from accessing public services, thereby undermining the effectiveness of other forms of social investment
Download the full report (.pdf)