19m South Africans receive social grants this year

The department of social development allocated more than 19 million South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) social grants in the 2023-24 financial year.

- Enkosi Selane

The number of grants is almost a third of South Africa's population.

Child support and old age grants were the largest groups of beneficiaries.

These statistics were recently revealed by the minister of social development's office in response to a parliamentary question from the chairperson of the portfolio committee on social development, Bridget Masango.

Child support recipients aged 0-18 totalled 13 218 701, while 4 041 763 old age beneficiaries received grants.

KwaZulu-Natal had the most number of child support recipients, totalling 3 007 403, followed by Gauteng (2 046 204), Limpopo (2 002 516), Eastern Cape (1 956 118), Mpumalanga (1 206 851), Western Cape (1 036 547), North West (917 393), Free State (709 323) and Northern Cape (336 346).