The impact of the social relief & distress grant on poverty in South Africa
| dc.contributor.advisor | Eyal, Katherine | |
| dc.contributor.author | Fatch, Martha | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2025-11-12T09:51:22Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2025-11-12T09:51:22Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2025 | |
| dc.date.updated | 2025-11-12T09:48:13Z | |
| dc.description.abstract | This paper examines the impact of the Social Relief & Distress grant on poverty reduction in South Africa amidst the COVID-19 global pandemic. A large number of individuals live below the poverty line in South Africa and the lockdowns used to combat the spread of COVID-19 have resulted in more people living below the poverty line. This paper uses secondary data in South Africa, utilising all five waves of the NIDS-CRAM panel survey, with an initial sample frame of 7,073 participants. This data is used to estimate the impact of a new cash transfer on household poverty using a number of different techniques. In initial estimates, a strong negative correlation between receipt of the Social Relief & Distress grant and household poverty is observed, as expected. However, in multivariate analysis this negative association is reduced, with an effect found which is neither practically nor statistically significant. While the SRD could reduce some proportion of household poverty in certain samples, this effect is not large enough to meaningfully impact average household socio-economic status in South Africa. Increasing the grant size and broadening its reach could have a significant impact on household poverty and overall inequality. | |
| dc.identifier.apacitation | Fatch, M. (2025). <i>The impact of the social relief & distress grant on poverty in South Africa</i>. (). University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Commerce ,School of Economics. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/11427/42184 | en_ZA |
| dc.identifier.chicagocitation | Fatch, Martha. <i>"The impact of the social relief & distress grant on poverty in South Africa."</i> ., University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Commerce ,School of Economics, 2025. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/42184 | en_ZA |
| dc.identifier.citation | Fatch, M. 2025. The impact of the social relief & distress grant on poverty in South Africa. . University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Commerce ,School of Economics. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/42184 | en_ZA |
| dc.identifier.ris | TY - Thesis / Dissertation AU - Fatch, Martha AB - This paper examines the impact of the Social Relief & Distress grant on poverty reduction in South Africa amidst the COVID-19 global pandemic. A large number of individuals live below the poverty line in South Africa and the lockdowns used to combat the spread of COVID-19 have resulted in more people living below the poverty line. This paper uses secondary data in South Africa, utilising all five waves of the NIDS-CRAM panel survey, with an initial sample frame of 7,073 participants. This data is used to estimate the impact of a new cash transfer on household poverty using a number of different techniques. In initial estimates, a strong negative correlation between receipt of the Social Relief & Distress grant and household poverty is observed, as expected. However, in multivariate analysis this negative association is reduced, with an effect found which is neither practically nor statistically significant. While the SRD could reduce some proportion of household poverty in certain samples, this effect is not large enough to meaningfully impact average household socio-economic status in South Africa. Increasing the grant size and broadening its reach could have a significant impact on household poverty and overall inequality. DA - 2025 DB - OpenUCT DP - University of Cape Town KW - poverty KW - social relief KW - distress grant KW - poverty LK - https://open.uct.ac.za PB - University of Cape Town PY - 2025 T1 - The impact of the social relief & distress grant on poverty in South Africa TI - The impact of the social relief & distress grant on poverty in South Africa UR - http://hdl.handle.net/11427/42184 ER - | en_ZA |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/11427/42184 | |
| dc.identifier.vancouvercitation | Fatch M. The impact of the social relief & distress grant on poverty in South Africa. []. University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Commerce ,School of Economics, 2025 [cited yyyy month dd]. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/11427/42184 | en_ZA |
| dc.language.iso | en | |
| dc.language.rfc3066 | eng | |
| dc.publisher.department | School of Economics | |
| dc.publisher.faculty | Faculty of Commerce | |
| dc.publisher.institution | University of Cape Town | |
| dc.subject | poverty | |
| dc.subject | social relief | |
| dc.subject | distress grant | |
| dc.subject | poverty | |
| dc.title | The impact of the social relief & distress grant on poverty in South Africa | |
| dc.type | Thesis / Dissertation | |
| dc.type.qualificationlevel | Masters | |
| dc.type.qualificationlevel | MCom |