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 (MPA.) -- University of Limpopo, 2019 / This study sought to investigate the role and impact of social security grant on poverty alleviation on a case of Child Support Grant at Mankweng. Child Support Grant is a poverty alleviation mechanism implemented with the aim of exploring new alternative policy options targeting children and families in South Africa. The grant has proven to be successful as it was able to put about 8 million orphans and poor children in the safety net in 2008. However, although the grant has proven to be successful, not all the deserving children receive the grant. Children‟s access to a full measure of security and the basic needs as prescribed in the Bill of Rights remain agitated with problems as the grant‟s extent of coverage due to the limited amount structure does not provide all the basic needs of the children. The study also revealed that majority of participants due to the grant‟s extent of coverage experienced hardships in terms of inflation rate. The participants‟ stressed about the price of goods which is perennially increasing as they are unable to cope with price trends, which led them to adopt the practice of layby. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were utilised which adopted structured questionnaires and in-person interviews to hear the participants‟ perspective on the impact that Child Support Grant has as a poverty alleviation mechanism on the livelihoods of the beneficiaries as well as the challenges of Child Support Grant‟s administrative system. The study recommended that the Child Support Grant despite its limited amount structure enables people to participate on economic activities wherein they are able to engage in farming activities in that during harvest time they are able to sell their produce to the market like Pick „n Pay and Shoprite though its seasonal.

Thesis (MPA.) -- University of Limpopo, 2017. / The study was undertaken to examine the contribution of child support grant (CSG) towards alleviation of poverty in South Africa. This is necessary because CSG is meant to support children from poor background in order to improve their general wellbeing. The literature review undertaken in this study shows that CSG is contributing towards alleviation of poverty in Masodi village. The literature review further highlights that there are various challenges that disturbs the strategies of the government in delivering world class social assistance to the citizens of South Africa. Another finding are that there are barriers in the utilization of system that are used to pay CSG as it is outdated, and need to be updated. This challenge justifies why there are several corruption cases in the social pension system (SOCPEN). One of the findings of the study is that CSG plays a direct role in the life of beneficiaries in improving socio-economic conditions in their lives; children are able to attend school, improve on nutrition and access health services. The main recommendation of the study is that government should increase the amount of CSG; it should be extended to the age of 21 to enable the children to attend higher learning institutions. In order to assist children to overcome the challenges of poverty, accessing higher education would reduce dependency on the government in the long run, as they will acquire skills that will make them employable. / South African Social Security Agency

MSCPNT / Department of Nutrition / Objectives: The study objectives were to determine demographic and environmental factors that can affect nutritional status of children receiving CSG, to assess the nutritional knowledge of caregivers, to determine the proportion of CSG spent on food and to determine the nutritional quality of food bought from CSG. Design: Cross-sectional descriptive with an analytical component Subjects: PCG of children under the age of 5 receiving CSG in Mogalakwena Municipality. 189 caregiver-child pairs were interviewed, in their households. Methods: Data collected by the interviewer included demographic data, Use of CSG, nutritional knowledge and the HHFI and anthropometric measurements were done by a 3rd year Nutrition student. Results: About 36.5% of participants were in the age 26-35 years, 75.7% were unmarried, 84.1% were unemployed and 72% had no matric. Mean age for children studied was 2.84±1.33, 77.8% of participants stayed in a household of more than 5 people. In terms of types of housing, 56% had formal houses, 55% had access to pit latrines and 52.9% used communal taps to access water, 41.3% used electricity for energy while 23.3% used wood to stretch the availability of electricity. Mean CSG received was R386.22 ±R208.75. Majority of participants (56.1%) indicated that CSG supports the whole family and 64.6% of the families depended solely on CSG for survival, while 27% of families had elderly people receiving pension grant which was supplementing the CSG. The CSG was used for different items, majority of families used 94.2% of the money for food at a mean of R171.55±159.25, followed by toiletry (71.6%) at a mean R61.89±69.24, then clothing (68.9%) at a mean of R70.77±97.14. Stokvel was also mentioned as one of the items contributed for by CSG, 32.3% of participants used more than R50.00 for stokvel. Different food items were purchased using CSG, 80.5 % of the money was used to purchase starchy food, mealie meal being the highest commodity at 43.7%. Offal (35.8%) was the highest protein source purchased followed by poultry at 26.4% and soya soup at 20%. Potatoes (19.6%) were mentioned as the most purchased vegetable, followed by cabbage (14.8%). There was a 53.5% of prevalence of stunting, of this 19.6% of children were severely xiii stunted, 5.3% underweight, and 32.3% of wasting. There were 22.1 % of PCG who were overweight and 12.1% were obese. The PCG BMI was negatively associated with WAZ (r= -0.48, p=0.515). There was a positive association between PCG BMI and HAZ (r=0.103, p=0.158), however when caregivers BMI was correlated to BAZ the association was strongly negatively significant (r=0.206, p=0.004). Most PCG received nutrition education from relatives, 71.1% were never educated on nutrition, 57.9% of children were fed 3X/ day. Conclusion: It is apparent from the study that malnutrition, precisely stunting is still a problem in South Africa, however this does not disregard the impact that CSG has on the lives of the poor. It affords the families to access basic needs in the household such as food, toiletry, electricity and even stokvel. The role of nutritionists/ dieticians is paramount in helping mothers to choose healthier economic food for the children in order to curb the burden of malnutrition. / NRF