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.

Policy implementation is an important aspect of service delivery. It is a process that requires all the involved parties to work together. In addition, the policy to be implemented has to be preceded by extensive planning and capacity to ensure effective implementation. According to Parsons (1995:465), "effective implementation requires a good chain of command and a capacity to co-ordinate and control...". The Child Support Grant (CSG) is one of the social security grants created by the South African Government to offer financial support to children in need. The CSG is the one that is widely accessed by children. This grant has reached millions of children in South Africa since its initial implementation; however a large number of children still do not receive this grant due to administration problems (Skweyiya 2005:2). This research project provides a critical analysis of the implementation of CSG between the years 2000 and 2004. A conceptual analysis (content analysis) of secondary studies on the implementation of the Child Support Grant is the scope of this investigation. The study analysed the manner in which the CSG had been implemented by the Department of Social Development (DSD) between the years 2000 and 2004. The findings show that there were many problems that related to the administration of the CSG. The problems ranged from lack of capacity (human as well as organizational) by government officials, to the mode (top-down) of implementation, the employment of bureaucratic methods of implementing policy, lack of system upgrade, street level bureucrats methods of implementing policies and insufficient monitoring and evaluation by the National Department of Social Development. The DSD neglected to provide infrastructural support to facilitate the additional number of beneficiaries that resulted from the extension of the CSG to children under 14 years old. These organizational capacity development problems manifested in the lack of sufficient equipment in welfare offices. Many welfare offices did not have essential equipment (such as chairs, working computers and working telephones) needed to perform their duties. Technical resources such as working computers and telephones are an essential part of implementation. Lack of proper monitoring and evaluation of the administration of the Grant has created loopholes in the system that have cost the Department about R1.5 billion each year from 2000 to 2004. Another problem was that there were staff shortages in most areas. In areas where staff was available they lacked the capacity to administer the Grant. As a result, wrong information was disseminated to the public concerning the eligibility for the CSG. The data capturing system the Department uses, Social Pension System (SOCPEN), had not been upgraded to handle greater numbers of applicants. This has led to applicants not being processed, thus affecting service delivery. The study has shown the impacts these problems can have on policy. Due to the manner in which policy was implemented the DSD ended up losing money, which was intended for beneficiaries, through fraud and maladministration. In addition to money lost, potential beneficiaries could not access the Grant due to obstacles created by government officials as their way of implementing policy effectively. According to Lipsky (1980:149), low ranking street level bureaucrats create ways of coping with their duties through simplifying their authority. This enables them to utilise their authority and impose their job restrictions for reasons of lack of service delivery on their clients . Due to the scope of "allowed" discretion that street level bureaucrats can exercise, fragmentation of policy is most often experienced during implementation. / Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2006.

This study investigates the impact of the impact of Social Grants in poverty alleviation; a case in point is the Child Support Grants in Lusikisiki. Poverty is characterized by an increase in depravation, unemployment and inequality. Social Security has been introduced as a social safety net that reduces the severity of poverty. The study uncovers the significance of the Child Support Grant in sustaining families and meeting their basic human needs. The study further shows that the Child Support Grant is a reliable monthly cash injection that benefits the children and other people in the households. It gives hope, allows beneficiaries to make choices and enables them to take care of themselves and their families, therefore restores dignity. The additional support provided to the Child Support Grant recipients promotes human development and improves access to education and health. The Child Support Grant has a significant impact on poverty alleviation.

This treatise investigated the productive utilisation of child support grants (CSGs) with particular reference to Benoni town. The South African government introduced the CSG, which replaced the old maintenance grant in 1998. The aim of the CSG is to cater for the needs of vulnerable children living in South Africa such as education, basic health, food, shelter and protection. Since its introduction, CSG has been able to reach millions of vulnerable children in South Africa. Despite this success, the grant is still fraught with administrative inefficiencies and fraudulent activities committed by some CSG recipients. The researcher’s findings exposed the inappropriate and wasteful expenditure associated with the grant usage, by recipients of CSG. The researcher discovered that some mothers use grant money to buy alcohol and beauty products for themselves instead of the child’s needs. The reason associated to this wasteful expenditure was that the child is kept under the care of the grandmother who takes good care of the child, thus giving the mother the opportunity to use the grant she collects as she wishes. The main aim of this investigation was to find out how CSGs can be effectively and efficiently utilised by parents and guardians in Benoni and to make recommendations for better usage. The study also examined the effects of CSGs on children in Benoni and whether they are beneficial or not. The qualitative method of research was used and the study was descriptive in nature. Questionnaires were distributed to state officials and interviews conducted with CSG recipients. The findings from this research revealed that some of the respondents use the money to buy alcohol and beauty product for themselves instead of the child’s needs, making the implementation of CSGs ineffective and inefficient. This shows that there is a misuse of state funds by recipients of CSGs whereas there are millions of vulnerable children out there who do not have access to this cash transfer. The department of social security is encouraged to ensure effective and efficient utilisation of CSGs by recipients through state officials.

The topic of the research is derived from the researcher‟s own interest as a social worker and observations of reality within youth-headed families. Over the past few years the number of published studies on child and youth-headed households has grown out of the realisation that this multi-faceted phenomenon is growing in numbers and complexity. Most of these studies and reports concentrate on the issue of scale and the severity of the crisis of child and youth-headed households (UNICEF, 2002; Maqoko & Dryer, 2007 & Kuhanen, Shemeikka, Notkola & Nghixulifwa, 2008). These studies reveal the complex nature of the phenomenon of child and youth-headed families and the challenges that face young people within these families which impact on their growth and development. In most of the studies, the phenomenon of child and youth-headed households has been reported to have an impact on societal framework as a result of its complexity (UNICEF, 2002, 2008; van Dijk, 2008; Kuhanen et al., 2008; Evans, 2010). Over the past years there has been a steady increase in studies that has focussed on coping and resilience of children and young people. Many of these studies have identified resilience-related factors through quantitative ecological approaches to research. To date, there seems to be very few qualitative studies that have been undertaken to delineate the construct of resilience in child and youth-headed families within the South African context from the perspectives of children and young people growing up in these families (Beeka, 2008; Nkomo, 2008; Leatham, 2005). McCubbin (1999, in Smith 2006:48) argues that qualitative research is well suited to understanding processes and strategies in the study of resilience. This study therefore corresponds to McCubbin‟ calling by employing a qualitative research to the study of resilience in youth-headed families. The first goal of this study was to gain a deeper understanding of the experiences and needs of youth-headed families in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, as well as to enhance understanding of the protective factors and processes within youth-headed families and their environment that enable them to cope with their circumstances. The secondary goal of this study was to formulate practice guidelines for supporting members of youth-headed families that could be used by social workers and other service providers rendering services to these families in order to enhance their coping and resilience. The following objectives were formulated to guide the research process: - To explore and describe the experiences and needs of youth-headed families; - To explore the perceptions of community members regarding the needs of youth-headed families, as well as their perceptions regarding how these needs are addressed at community level; - To identify and describe the protective factors and/or processes within individual members of youth-headed families, their families and community context that promote the coping and resilience of youth-headed families; - To explore the views of service providers rendering services to youth-headed families regarding the nature of interventions and programmes rendered to these families; - To review the literature on existing family support programmes in order to identify good practice examples to inform the formulation of practice guidelines for supporting members of youth-headed families.

A Research Report submitted in partial fulfilment of the Degree of Master of Commerce (Economic Science) in the School of Economic and Business Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, 28 February 2019 / This paper investigates the impact of the South African Child Support Grant (CSG) on the beneficiary’s height-for-age z-score (HAZ). We make use of data from the National Income Dynamics Study (NIDS), the wave 3 dataset. Using Propensity Score Matching approach the effect of the CSG is positive but statistically insignificant and relatively small. This popular technique rely on assumptions that often do no hold for observational studies. Furthermore, it is susceptible to misspecification of the propensity score equation which could bias the results. This paper therefore look into a technique that address these limitations and can assess the treatment effect robustly and with more precision. We apply genetic matching algorithm, namely GenMatch. GenMatch is an iterative search algorithm that uses distance metrics to optimize covariate balance in the process of estimating the treatment effect. It automates the search process without the need of manual intervention to achieve the best balance. This algorithm is applied using two balance measures namely, the entropic distance metric and the standardized difference in means. The former compares distributions while the latter compares the first two moments (means and variances) of distributions. The results showcase the significance of utilizing a method that automates the process of optimizing balance and the influence of balance measures on the resulting treatment effect estimate. Specifically, we found that the estimate of the effect of the CSG is larger and more precise than the one reported in the literature. / PH2020

Thesis presented in partial fulfilment for the degree of Master of Management (in the field of Public and Development Management) to the Faculty of Commerce, Law, and Management, University of the Witwatersrand, 2016 / The research aimed to find out whether one of the unintended outcomes of governments’ top-down implementation of the child support grant was increased fertility among recipients in the rural areas, which generally have higher levels of fertility in the country. South Africa does not have a fertility problem, but development is still much needed in the rural areas. The plight of government, having inherited one of the most unequal society is not minimised. According to Mcnicoll (1998), public transfers among age groups are fertility related. Government directs public expenditures towards social services benefiting the poor. Such expenditures and transfers may significantly modify the economics of fertility as seen by prospective parents. Rural households are more vulnerable because of the economic unviability rooted in the apartheid system. Our study has tried to show how the environment in Lenyenye Township and surrounding villages could make it a possibility for women to see the increment of births as a rational solution for the survival of their family. The theory of bounded rationality was used to demonstrate that rationality is more adaptive to situations based on the environmental constraints. / XL2017

Introduction and background to the study: This study investigates the impact of Child Support Grant on household access to food; education, and health care. The primary investigation is conducted between Mdantsane Township and Postdam communities, which are within Buffalo City Metro Municipality in the Eastern Cape.

Thesis (MPA.) -- University of Limpopo, 2015 / The present study is about community perception on child support grant (CSG) in Lepelle Nkumpi, in the Limpopo Province. The main aim of the study was to investigate the use of CSG by the beneficiaries and the community perceptions thereof on CSG abuse in South African Social Security Agency (SASSA). The objectives were to investigate the use of CSG by the beneficiaries, to identify the weakness in SASSA policy on the granting of CSG, to analyse the community perception about the abuse of CSG and to provide workable solutions to the existing problems of child grant. Structured interviews, questionnaires and literature were used to collect data. The study concluded that SASSA employees and community members believe that beneficiaries are abusing child support grant while beneficiaries believes that child support grant is used properly.

Thesis (M. Dev.) --University of Limpopo, 2016 / This study seeks to investigate the impact of Child Support Grant with special reference to Moletjie Moshate Village. The government in its efforts to alleviate poverty to the previously disadvantaged and vulnerable segments of our communities, introduced several poverty alleviation strategies such as the Child Support Grant which replaced the Maintenance Grant. The Child Support Grant has proven to be successful as it was able, according to the Minister of Social Development, Ms Bathabile Dlamini, to help millions of poor children. However, as successful as it may be, the Child Support Grant as a social welfare strategy is inadequate. People are still facing poverty due to lack of job opportunities. The findings of the present study show that a lack of family planning that unprotected sex, moral degeneration and absent fathers are challenges which derail any positive impact. The study further reveals that the majority of the respondents experience hardships in terms of property ownership, employment, and education, training and skills development, emotional and financial support. The main aim of this study was to investigate if the grant was used properly and to make recommendations towards a solution. The study also sought to answer the question whether there was any alternative to Child Support Grant. It also asks if it is important to get support of grant even after the child has reached 18 years. Quantitative methods were used. Questionnaires were used as Interview schedules. The research was focusing on two phases being the impact on recipients and on the beneficiary himself/herself. The government helps through other poverty alleviating mechanisms like food parcels, school nutrition systems and free health services, which are complementary to poverty alleviation. This is a challenge for the government and the community at large; if the situation is not changed it will cost government huge amounts which could be used for other projects.