A thesis submitted to the Faculty Of Arts in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Masters in Community Work in the Department of Social Work at the University Of Zululand, 2017 / Disability and poverty can no longer be denied as being some of the major factors that affect a number of people across South Africa and other developing, or even developed countries. Yet, disability and poverty are still ill-defined and under researched. South Africa has developed an income system aimed at helping people with disabilities: The Disability Cash Transfer (DCT). Physical and mental conditions of people with disabilities vary from one person to another, which means that the type of care they require as they grow older is also different. Therefore, people with disabilities constantly require financial care and societal acceptance. This is why the South African government provides DCT for people with disabilities who cannot perform any formal work as a way to generate income for themselves. This study seeks to evaluate if the DCT has an effect on people’s lives, with regards to poverty reduction, within Nqutu Local Municipality. Based on the Nqutu Local Municipality Integrated Development Plan First review (2013/2014:6), the estimated dependency ratio on social grants is 90.60%. The Disability Cash Transfer is within that estimated percentage. In this study, both qualitative and quantitative data was obtained using questionnaires and interview schedules. The research instruments that were employed in this study to collect data from beneficiaries of DCT were questionnaires, and to gather information from SASSA officials, interview schedules were used. The study target population were the beneficiaries of DCT as well as SASSA officials of Nqutu Local Municipality. To sample DCT beneficiaries, convenience sampling was used, and to select SASSA officials, simple random sampling was employed. This researcher managed to get 73 DCT beneficiaries and 8 SASSA officials. Content analysis was used to analyse interview schedules, in which all SASSA officials expressed that DCT does have an effect on poverty reduction. To analyse questionnaires descriptive analysis and the statistics program (SPSS) was used. The findings of the study reveal that although the DCT may be satisfactory, there is a necessity for implementers to re-evaluate current operations to avoid the exclusion and inclusion errors that exist in the DCT distribution. Therefore, it is prudent for the government, community members, and SASSA to work concurrently into introducing new strategies that will strip off distribution errors and mitigate poverty. Findings, further exhibited that 91.78% respondents believe that the DCT has effects at Nqutu Local Municipality because beneficiaries are able to provide essential needs for their families. A high number of respondents 57.53% mentioned that there are challenges in the DCT distribution. These challenges were found to be the result of the imperfection of the system as it appeared the DCT beneficiaries would sometimes not receive full amount of their grant. It is recommended that the Department of Social Development working together with SASSA revisit the distribution procedure to avoid fraudulent activities that the DCT beneficiaries experience. To reduce poverty people with disabilities should also be given employment opportunities equal to people with no disabilities as a way to reduce a dependency ratio to social grants. / National Research Foundation Of South Africa