Devising social security interventions for maximum poverty impact

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dc.contributor.authorvan der Berg, Servaas
dc.contributor.authorBredenkamp, Caryn
dc.date.accessioned2016-04-22T13:01:01Z
dc.date.available2016-04-22T13:01:01Z
dc.date.issued2002
dc.date.updated2016-04-22T12:54:31Z
dc.description.abstractSocial security, designed to provide protection against various contingencies, is not well suited to the elimination or redress of large-scale, endemic poverty, nor is it effective against the deep poverty caused by events such as the Great Depression. Social security on its own cannot overcome poverty of this magnitude, particularly in developing countries. For reasons of fiscal and administrative capacity, inter alia, social security usually expands through piecemeal reforms rather than through grand schemes. The basic income grant was, in its conception, just such a grand scheme and its proponents' untempered enthusiasm has unfortunately done harm to the cause of social security's realistic expansion. Now even the Taylor Committee, after initial enthusiasm, has accepted that a basic income grant is not viable. And so the time has come to return to the job at hand for social security: to painstaking and piecemeal analysis, to the careful weighing of alternatives, and to informed debate. This article attempts to contribute to this end. We show that the South African social security system, though very advanced for a country at this level of per capita income, still has pervasive gaps in its coverage and is close to the limits of its capacities. Yet the Constitution obliges government to work towards the progressive expansion of social security and in this article we support incremental and targeted social security interventions as the strategy most likely to contribute to poverty reduction. We use an analysis of 1995 income distribution data to assist us in identifying where such social security interventions are most likely to have a significant poverty alleviating effect.en_ZA
dc.identifier.apacitationvan der Berg, S., & Bredenkamp, C. (2002). <i>Devising social security interventions for maximum poverty impact</i> University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Humanities ,Centre for Social Science Research(CSSR). Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/11427/19129en_ZA
dc.identifier.chicagocitationvan der Berg, Servaas, and Caryn Bredenkamp <i>Devising social security interventions for maximum poverty impact.</i> University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Humanities ,Centre for Social Science Research(CSSR), 2002. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/19129en_ZA
dc.identifier.citationVan der Berg, S., & Bredenkamp, C. (2002). Devising social security interventions for maximum poverty impact. Centre for Social Science Research: University of Cape Town.en_ZA
dc.identifier.ris TY - Working Paper AU - van der Berg, Servaas AU - Bredenkamp, Caryn AB - Social security, designed to provide protection against various contingencies, is not well suited to the elimination or redress of large-scale, endemic poverty, nor is it effective against the deep poverty caused by events such as the Great Depression. Social security on its own cannot overcome poverty of this magnitude, particularly in developing countries. For reasons of fiscal and administrative capacity, inter alia, social security usually expands through piecemeal reforms rather than through grand schemes. The basic income grant was, in its conception, just such a grand scheme and its proponents' untempered enthusiasm has unfortunately done harm to the cause of social security's realistic expansion. Now even the Taylor Committee, after initial enthusiasm, has accepted that a basic income grant is not viable. And so the time has come to return to the job at hand for social security: to painstaking and piecemeal analysis, to the careful weighing of alternatives, and to informed debate. This article attempts to contribute to this end. We show that the South African social security system, though very advanced for a country at this level of per capita income, still has pervasive gaps in its coverage and is close to the limits of its capacities. Yet the Constitution obliges government to work towards the progressive expansion of social security and in this article we support incremental and targeted social security interventions as the strategy most likely to contribute to poverty reduction. We use an analysis of 1995 income distribution data to assist us in identifying where such social security interventions are most likely to have a significant poverty alleviating effect. DA - 2002 DB - OpenUCT DP - University of Cape Town LK - https://open.uct.ac.za PB - University of Cape Town PY - 2002 T1 - Devising social security interventions for maximum poverty impact TI - Devising social security interventions for maximum poverty impact UR - http://hdl.handle.net/11427/19129 ER - en_ZA
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/11427/19129
dc.identifier.vancouvercitationvan der Berg S, Bredenkamp C. Devising social security interventions for maximum poverty impact. 2002 [cited yyyy month dd]. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/11427/19129en_ZA
dc.languageengen_ZA
dc.publisher.departmentCentre for Social Science Research(CSSR)en_ZA
dc.publisher.facultyFaculty of Humanitiesen_ZA
dc.publisher.institutionUniversity of Cape Town
dc.rightsCreative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
dc.titleDevising social security interventions for maximum poverty impacten_ZA
dc.typeWorking Paperen_ZA
uct.type.filetypeText
uct.type.filetypeImage
uct.type.publicationResearchen_ZA
uct.type.resourceResearch paperen_ZA
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