DA Proposes Grant Changes

[LazyLion]

The DA proposed measures on Tuesday to ensure child grants are not abused, as part of their green paper on poverty relief.

Democratic Alliance parliamentary leader Lindiwe Mazibuko said social workers should be obliged to intervene if there was suspicion that grant conditions were being flouted, for example if a child was not attending school.

The party also called for the introduction of a community oversight system on grant spending.

This would allow teachers or others to apply for the grant to be paid out to another caretaker or to a social worker if grant money was not being spent in a child's best interest.

To encourage behaviour which would help children overcome poverty, the party proposed that bonuses be paid to children for completing Grade 12.

This should be backed up by other measures to help the youth complete their studies and find jobs, including a comprehensive government intern programme and education vouchers for the unemployed.

If it were in power, the party would also provide transport and communication coupons for job-seekers and speed up the expanded public works programme in areas where unemployment was particularly high.

"A DA government will ensure that we have a growing economy which will free millions from the shackles of poverty and allow people to move from welfare to work.

"The DA feels the pain of the millions that are unemployed, and we are determined to better their future," she said.


Source : Sapa /ef/hdw/jk/cls
Date : 17 Sep 2013 15:51

 

[The_Assimilator]

There's an easy way to fix the unemployment problem: put the unemployed to work fixing the roads. Everyone wins.

 

[Shoedoe-ZA]

There's an easy way to fix the unemployment problem: put the unemployed to work fixing the roads. Everyone wins.

Isn't that what they plan to do by speeding up the EPWP?

 

[Good.Fellow]

There's an easy way to fix the unemployment problem: put the unemployed to work fixing the roads. Everyone wins.

But they don't want to work.

 

[koeks525]

It's a good plan, but they better not award that bonus for completing grade 12 to people who scrape through matric with 30%. I think DA should just put that award towards the learner's university fees(put it in as a discount or use it to pay for registration). I'm sure most learners would take the money and go get wasted with it

 

[w1z4rd]

There's an easy way to fix the unemployment problem: put the unemployed to work fixing the roads. Everyone wins.

Yeah, there was a time when there was 100% employment. It was called slavery. Not your best moment right there.

I think this is smart from the DA. There are still grants for social justice and upliftment, but incentives if they do better. Not only that, they increase oversight on grant abuse. Awesome.

 

[SaiyanZ]

The problem with this is that the voting population are the ones currently receiving grants, not the school kids. They're not going to prefer vouchers over cash. In order for this to work, the cash portion has to be reduced since the money has to come from somewhere.

 

[Redeemed]

DA does about-turn on grants

A week after backing black economic empowerment, the DA made another policy U-turn yesterday, announcing that it supported social welfare grants, which it previously criticised as a burden on the public purse.

DA parliamentary leader Lindiwe Mazibuko released the party's draft policy on "social protection", an alternative to the government's social welfare programme.

The DA draft backs social grants but proposes a range of schemes to ensure that recipients are not perpetually dependent on them.

It also calls for the implementation of the youth wage subsidy that has been rejected by the ANC and its allies.

Political opponents have slammed the party's "Know your DA" campaign, including its new position on BEE, as an election gimmick. But Mazibuko said yesterday that the DA had always backed social grants, which she said were effective in reducing poverty .

"Research suggests that, between 1997 and 2011, social grants reduced the number of people living on less than R20 a day by 82%. Grants have also helped to reduce child poverty and to lower the number of children who do not have an adequate standard of living, including access to services such as electricity, housing, water and sanitation," she said.

Link.

 

[The_Assimilator]

Yeah, there was a time when there was 100% employment. It was called slavery. Not your best moment right there.

In a country with high unemployment and a crumbling infrastructure, it makes sense to fix 2 problems at once by paying the unemployed to fix the infrastructure. This isn't 100% employment, nor is it slavery; it's common sense.

 

[w1z4rd]

In a country with high unemployment and a crumbling infrastructure, it makes sense to fix 2 problems at once by paying the unemployed to fix the infrastructure. This isn't 100% employment, nor is it slavery; it's common sense.

Kinda like feeding the homeless to the hungry?

 

[OrbitalDawn]

In a country with high unemployment and a crumbling infrastructure, it makes sense to fix 2 problems at once by paying the unemployed to fix the infrastructure. This isn't 100% employment, nor is it slavery; it's common sense.

How many of those are useful workers? If roads are done badly then we just keep paying them to redo them?

 

[ToxicBunny]

Ummm as much as the headline says one thing, the reality is different.

The DA has always supported social grants, but in a manner that is less detrimental to the country as a whole... they seem to prefer grants that help uplift people in the long term rather than just blanket payouts.

 

[OrbitalDawn]

Reply to thread fail?

 

[ToxicBunny]

Ke, what the fek?

Looks like Merge thread fail from a mod