Presentation on public comments on Social Assistance Amendment Bill 11

Presentation Outline  Background  Comments unrelated to the purpose of the amendments  Comments related to the purpose of the amendments  DSD response  Proposed new changes 22

Background  On 30 November 2009 DSD published Bill for Public comments and received no comments;  On 1 March 2010 PC published the Bill for public comments;  Subsequently, public hearings were held on 20 and 21 April 2010; and  Seven organisations made oral presentations. 33

UNRELATED COMMENTS  There was a general feeling that the new definition of disability will exclude people with chronic illnesses  It was recommended that the bill be amended to include a chronic illness grant  Usage of CD4 count as an exclusion or inclusion criteria for disability grant 44

RELATED COMMENTS  The definition of disability is unclear  In the definition of disability the word “disability” must be replaced with the word “impairment”  The new definition is not appropriate for care dependency grant  The replacement of the conjunction “and” with “or” in section 12 will disqualify older persons from receiving grant-in-aid 55

RESRELATED COMMENTS  The inclusion in section 18 of SASSA’s reconsideration of its decision will prolong the process of the applicants or beneficiaries’ right to appealing  The reconsideration should not take more than 30 days 66

RESPONSE  There is a clear distinction between disability as defined in this Act and chronic illness  A chronic illness is defined as an illness that is prolonged, does not resolve spontaneously, and is rarely cured completely  In terms of both the current and the proposed definition of disability a person with purely a chronic illness is not considered to have a disability. 77

RESPONSE (cont)  Lack of standardised assessment tool resulted in people with chronic illnesses receiving a disability grant  For the purposes of this Bill a chronic illness grant is not addressed  We support the recommendation that in the definition of disability the word “disability” must be replaced with the word “impairment” 88

RESPONSE (cont)  A new definition to care dependent child has been inserted to deal with the requirements for a care dependent grant “care-dependent child” means a child who has moderate to severe limitation in his or her ability to perform daily life activities in relation to developmental milestones as a result of a physical, sensory, communication, intellectual or mental impairment, rendering him or her to require permanent care or support services”.  There was no replacement of “and” with “or” in section 12 99

RESPONSE (cont)  The Regulations will set out the procedure and timeframes for reconsiderations by SASSA of its own decision 1010

Proposed new changes  Child Support Grant  As a result of a policy to extend the Child Support Grant to children up to the age of 18 years it became necessary to amend the definition of the primary care giver  Right to appeal and reconsideration  Section 14(3)(b)(iii) has been amended so as to align it with the new amended section

Proposed new changes  Amendment to the definition of Primary care giver  “primary care giver” means a person older than 18 years, …; 1212

Thank You 1313