At the end of December 2024, 26-million people received social grants from the South African government, according to the South African Social Security Agency.
Half of them — 13.5-million — were for child support, care dependency and foster care. Another 4.1-million went to pensioners, and 6.9-million were Covid-19 Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grants, which were introduced during the pandemic.
The Treasury estimates there will be 27.7-million grant beneficiaries in the 2025/26 financial year.
Over the past eight years the number of social grant beneficiaries has increased by 60%, largely driven by the Covid-19 SRD grant. The increase in the 2020/21 financial year can be seen in the chart.
Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana said the SRD grant will continue, as it ‘serves as a basis for the introduction of a sustainable form of income support for unemployed people’.
Ninety-eight percent of the government’s revenue comes from taxes, with personal income tax contributing 40% of that.
The number of people eligible to pay tax has remained relatively stable at around 7-million over the eight-year period.
There are now roughly four grant beneficiaries for every taxpayer.


Get the data used in the chart on DataDesk