Children are part of the vulnerable population and mostly affected by poverty. The main policy response to children living in poverty in South Africa is the Child Support Grant (CSG). It is payable to a needy primary caregiver of a child for the benefit of that child. The aim of the CSG is to alleviate poverty among children. Although the grant is meant to benefit children, some of the caregivers misuse the grant resulting in children living in poverty. The study explored how caregivers in Ba-Phalaborwa sub-district in Limpopo Province utilise the CSG in the best interest of children. The researcher was motivated to conduct the study due to the reported cases of misuse of the CSG. It came to the researcher s attention that many caregivers do not utilise CSG in the best interest of children. Instead, caregivers use the grant for their own needs, leaving children s needs unmet. The study adopted a qualitative approach and it was exploratory in nature. The sample of the study was drawn from a population of 27 945 recipients of the CSG in the sub-district. A non-purposive sampling technique was used to select a sample of 20 caregivers aged between 21 and 50 who were also the beneficiaries of poor relief. A semi-structured interview schedule was used to collect data. The researcher conducted face-to-face individual interviews with 20 CSG recipients in Ba-Phalaborwa. The researcher also observed the participants home circumstances which further assisted her in data analysis. Thematic content analysis was used in analysing the data. The findings revealed that the CSG is mostly utilised to buy food, clothes and school necessities for children. This is a reflection that the grant does benefit children directly. Indirectly, the children benefit through contribution to burial societies with the grant. However, the findings further revealed that, there were perceptions that some recipients did not utilise the grant in the best interest of children. The misuse was through gambling and purchasing alcohol with grant. This disadvantages children. Suggestions were proposed on how those who misuse the grant can be dealt with. The suggestions included; initiating food vouchers, changing the recipient, monitoring, and punishing those who misuse the grant. In addition to the money being utilised to purchase food, clothes and school necessities for children, the findings also revealed that the participants were of the view that a slight amount of the grant need to be saved on a monthly basis so that it will help the children in future, especially when they go to tertiary institutions. However, participants complained about the inadequacy of the grant. VI Based on the research findings, it was recommended that if it is found that the recipients misuse the grant, someone should be appointed to receive the grant on behalf of the child and to use it for the benefit of that child. This should be done in collaboration with social workers and SASSA officials. Social workers should monitor the utilisation of CSG in order to ensure that the grant benefits children. Given the fact that the caseload for social workers is high, hiring other personnel (e.g. Auxiliary Social Workers) to deal specifically with the monitoring of the grant was recommended. The Auxiliary Social Workers can also assist families who are unable to manage their finances in drawing budgets with the CSG. It was further recommended that there is a need for South Africa to develop a comprehensive system of social protection which will enable caregivers to receive support in their own right. This would serve to ensure that the CSG is used specifically to meet the needs of children.

published_or_final_version / Social Work and Social Administration / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

In response to the high levels of child poverty, the government of South Africa introduced the Child Support Grant (CSG) in 1998. The grant, initially targeted children 6 years and younger. Over the years it has been extended to include children 15 years and younger. According to many studies the grant has proven to be beneficial. This study investigated the targeting of the CSG, if it indeed reaching the poor children via their caregivers. Care-givers, who reported receiving the CSG in KIDS 2004, were tracked to KIDS 1998 to determine their demographic and socioeconomic profile. A combination of quantitative and qualitative research methods was employed. The demographic and socio-economic characteristics of caregivers receiving and not receiving the CSG were analysed using cross tabs. Based on the means test income threshold, caregivers who are eligible and non-eligible for the CSG were identified. Multinomial regression was applied to identify the targeted, omitted and leaked CSG beneficiaries. These findings were augmented by the findings from the qualitative data. Based on the proxy indicators of poverty, the findings from the study have revealed that the CSG is being targeted at the poor, however there is evidence of both type I and type 11 errors of targeting present. Whilst type 11 error (leakage) is negligible, type I error of under-coverage is quite prominent. In essence the grant is reaching only some of its intended beneficiaries but not all of them. The study calls for government and its stakeholders to revisit the targeting design and implementation of the GCS. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2009.

This study explored the lived experiences of Black fathers who have children but do not reside with them. The study focused in particular on fathers who have formal agreements to pay child support through the Georgia Department of Human Services, Division of Child Support Services. The study sought to gain insight into how Black fathers within these circumstances, negotiate parenting with their children and how they understand the meaning of fatherhood. Using the qualitative, narrative methodological approach, data for the study was collected through personal interviews. Data was analyzed and synthesized thematically. 12 participants were recruited from the metro Atlanta area through convenience samples, snowball methods, flyer and posts within the "Black Fathers" social group on Facebook.

In a semi-longitudinal exploratory study using observational and in-depth interviewing methods the following questions were explored through an intensive analysis of 10 families involving 17 allegedly abused children. / 1. What are the factors to which social work practitioners in different organisational settings (a hospital based child abuse service and a statutory child protection service) give salience in their assessment of alleged child abuse cases and what is the nature of their observed models of practice? / 2. What is the nature of the interaction between different organisations, and in particular between the core organisations (the hospital, police and child protection services) in cases of alleged child abuse? / 3. How do parents perceive their experiences related to the alleged abuse of their children, and how do they perceive their interactions with core organisations? / Professionals were interviewed about their unfolding perceptions throughout the life of each case, with a total of 134 interviews being conducted with practitioners (an average of 13.4 per case). A total of 46 practice episodes were also observed (an average of 4.6 per case), including office interviews, home visits, groups sessions, meetings, case conferences and a court hearing. For all but one of the ten families it was also possible to conduct lengthy, in-depth home interviews with the parents about their experiences relating to the alleged abuse and their contact with services, thus bringing the combined total of professionals' and parents' in-depth interviews to 143. / A content analysis of the field notes yielded a number of themes and key findings. In relation to the first question, it was found that social workers in both the hospital and the child protection service gave salience to quite different variables and both groups attended to a much narrower range of variables than the framework of psycho-social assessment traditionally taught in professional social work education. / In relation to the second question, it was found that a pattern of marked tensions was evident in the relationship between the child protection service and both the hospital and the police. This mirrored the inter-organisational tensions which existed at a broader political level between these organisations. The tensions at the service delivery level were conceptualised as gate keeping disputes, dispositional disputes and domain disputes.

This study seeks to investigate the challenges faced by the recipients of the child support grant, with special reference to Morgan Bay, a rural area under the aegis of the Amathole District Municipality in East London. The child support grant is a strategy that was introduced to alleviate poverty in previously disadvantaged communities. The child support grant replaced the state maintenance grant. South Africa has high levels of unemployment; and this situation is considered to be a major contributing factor to poverty. After the apartheid era, the African National Congress (ANC) led government introduced a litany of redistributive policy frameworks aimed at reversing the imbalances of the past created by the apartheid government. The child support grant, which was established during the year 1998, is viewed as one of the strategies introduced by the South African government aimed at alleviating poverty caused by the lack of jobs. The aim of the study is to assess the implementation of the child support grant impact as a developmental strategy in rural communities, such as Morgan Bay. The study seeks to determine how the child support grant redistribution has affected rural communities. In other words, the research seeks to determine whether the child support grant redistribution has affected rural communities positively or negatively, and to ascertain whether it has mitigated the impact of socio-economic challenges in rural communities. The study also seeks to explore other strategies, which could be implemented to supplement the child support grant, and possibly decrease the level of dependence on the child support grant – by having a back-up strategy for alleviating poverty.

Masters of Commerce / This study investigates caregiver’s perceptions of the purposes, uses and adequacies of the Child Support Grant (CSG) in Mfuleni (Cape Town, South Africa). Moreover, the research was underpinned by the following research questions: What is the CSG intended for in South Africa? To what extent does the CSG enable caregivers to use it? What is the perception of caregivers with regards to the uses and purposes of the CSG in Mfuleni? What is the perception of caregivers regarding their power and agency to influence policy in terms of how the CSG should be structured (both in terms of benefit level and how it is administered)? A model by DFID (2011) focusing on the causal pathway for cash transfers was used as the conceptual framework for the study. Qualitative research methods were utilized to achieve the aims of the study. Ten interviews and a focus group discussion comprising six caregivers were conducted. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. The study revealed that caregivers understood the CSG is proposed for children, households and being a source of income for caregivers. Caregivers also revealed the CSG was utilized towards the basic needs of children. Through the CSG many caregivers had agency and power in their household and could establish small businesses.

For most formerly incarcerated people, the transition from prison to free society is fraught with challenges and constraints, some of which can persist for years, even decades, after one is released. Difficulty finding work, housing, and earning enough to make ends meet are essentially par for the course, among myriad other disadvantages. Child support debt can then make what is already a complicated situation far worse, not least of all because failure to pay brings about punitive legal sanctions. Arrearages at once constitute a collateral consequence of conviction and a barrier to reintegration. Incarceration can lead to the establishment of a child support order and the accumulation of debt, since most obligors can neither provide for their families nor effectively pursue order modifications while serving time. Then, once they are released, they face substantial obligations, dim financial prospects, and potential wage garnishment rates amounting to nearly two-thirds of their income—and that is assuming the individual manages to secure employment. Revenue that Child Support Enforcement (CSE) collects from these obligors often does not even go toward their families. Indeed, a significant share of arrears held by low-income and incarcerated fathers, sometimes with compound interest, is owed to the state for reimbursement of public benefits provided to the custodial family. By extracting formerly incarcerated fathers’ scarce financial resources on behalf of the state, CSE may actually be diverting potential informal support away from low-income families. Moreover, noncompliance can precipitate an array of consequences, some of which directly jeopardize the freedom of obligors involved in the criminal legal system. Dual entanglements in the carceral and child support systems comprise an issue that has gone largely unexamined in the empirical literature, at least until recently. This dissertation contributes to this emerging corpus of research by examining the dynamics of child support obligations, and especially debt, in the context of short- and long-term reintegration. Based on 31 in-depth, semi-structured interviews, the study examines formerly incarcerated, indebted fathers’ instrumental and symbolic understandings of child support. Findings include an inductively-constructed tripartite framework for obligors’ functional comprehension and interpretive frames, while highlighting major gaps in debtor knowledge and institutional provision of information. The dissertation also explores the ways in which obligors respond to child support obligations after prison, from engagement and compliance on one end to “off the grid” avoidance on the other. The analysis then addresses the various disruptive roles that child support arrears play throughout a series of transitional, though not necessarily sequential stages of post-prison reintegration. Implications for child support and criminal legal policy, and policy recommendations, are discussed.

The terrain of family law is increasingly complex and diverse and is constantly adapting to the changing social, cultural, political and economic landscape in which it is located. It is thus open to much development, particularly in the area of parenthood. In its simplest form, parenthood results when two consenting adults, knowingly and willingly, engage in sexual intercourse to conceive a child. The allocation of parental rights and responsibilities is therefore simplified on the basis that both parties consented to becoming parents. However, the assignment of legal parenthood is not always as clear-cut. Over the past three decades, the courts in the United States, in particular, have been tasked with adjudicating cases in which a biological father has refused to furnish child maintenance on the grounds that he was sexually forced into parenthood. These claims have highlighted the tension between biological fatherhood and legal parenthood, and have thus created a legal, ethical and practical quagmire in family law. Therefore this dissertation will explore the instances in which paternity is deceitfully imposed, the plethora of legal problems that arise and the possible legal routes open to involuntary fathers to avoid paying child support.

Magister Artium (Development Studies) - MA(DVS) / This study investigates caregiver’s perceptions of the purposes, uses and adequacies of the Child Support Grant (CSG) in Mfuleni (Cape Town, South Africa). Moreover, the research was underpinned by the following research questions: What is the CSG intended for in South Africa? To what extent does the CSG enable caregivers to use it? What is the perception of caregivers with regards to the uses and purposes of the CSG in Mfuleni? What is the perception of caregivers regarding their power and agency to influence policy in terms of how the CSG should be structured (both in terms of benefit level and how it is administered)? A model by DFID (2011) focusing on the causal pathway for cash transfers was used as the conceptual framework for the study. Qualitative research methods were utilized to achieve the aims of the study. Ten interviews and a focus group discussion comprising six caregivers were conducted. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. The study revealed that caregivers understood the CSG is proposed for children, households and being a source of income for caregivers. Caregivers also revealed the CSG was utilized towards the basic needs of children. Through the CSG many caregivers had agency and power in their household and could establish small businesses.