23% of SA households rely on Social Grants, up from 20% in 2019

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23% of the country’s households depend on social grants as their main source of income. According to the latest Stats SA General Household Survey, this is an increase from 20% in 2019.

The study shows that households that depend on salary as their main source of income have been on a steady rise after plummeting in 2020.

Stats SA says while 83% of households in metropolitan areas lived in formal dwellings, 16% of these households lived in informal settings. These are mostly common in Ekurhuleni, Cape Town, and Johannesburg.

The survey also shows that Gauteng and the Western Cape are most popular for rented housing, while KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga, the Northern Cape and Limpopo are most common for living in houses that they own.

Statistician-General, Risenga Maluleke says, “We are saying that slightly more than 4/5 that is 83.5% of South African households lived in formal dwellings as of 2023, as we can see that the formal dwellings were least in the Eastern Cape at 77.7%, in the Western Cape 80.3%. All the way when we look at Limpopo we see formal dwellings sitting at 95.1%.”

At the same time, Stats SA says salaries and grants are the most common source of income in the country.

The General Household Survey 2023 shows that 54.8% of households survive on salaries, wages and commission. That’s an improvement from 50.8% recorded in 2020.

According to the survey, 23% of households live on grants, nationally.

In 2019 the figure stood at just over 20% of households. Stats SA says the COVID-19 Social Relief of Distress grant contributed to the increase in social grants dependence.

Maluleke adds, “Households that considered their main source of income, increased sharply in 2020. Mainly due to a larger intake of COVID-19 social relief distress grants. And of course, have since declined and we can see that looking at where we were in COVID-19, 2020 at household level, we see the second line from the top in 2020 and it’s starting to decline.”

The survey also shows a slight drop in people covered in medical aid schemes between 2002 and 2023.

It also found that medical aid coverage was most common in Western Cape and Gauteng.

23% of SA households depend on grants: Isobel Frye