Foster Child Grant

2004

294,031 (2021/22)

4,373,497 (R’000) (2021/22)

Nationwide

Foster children

A foster child is a child who has been placed in applicant’s custody by a court as a result of being: (i) orphaned, (ii) abandoned, (iii) at risk, (iv) abused, (vi) neglected. To qualify, the applicant must be a South African citizen, permanent resident or refugee, the applicant and the child must live in South Africa, the foster child must be legally placed in the applicant´s care and the child must remain in their care, and the child must be younger than 18. Note that a foster parent can care for up to 6 (six) children unless a competent Children’s court orders otherwise.

The grant will be reviewed on expiry of the court order. Currently this is every two years. If the benefit recipient receives the money through the bank, an institution or procurator, they are required to fill in a life certificate (a document to prove that you are still alive) at a SASSA office every year.

Cash

R1 130 per month per child (2023)

Monthly

Grants are paid by SASSA through the following methods: (i) cash at a specific pay point on a particular day, (ii)electronic deposit into beneficiaries'’ bank or Postbank account and (iii) an institution acting as administrator of the grant e.g. a welfare organisation.

Foster parent or registered cluster foster care scheme If the recipient is unable to collect the benefit, a procurator may be appointed at the SASSA office.

The grant lapses if the child or the last living foster parent passes away, or if the child is admitted to a state institution or is no longer under foster care, or if the foster parent is absent from the country. If the beneficiary does not claim the grant for three consecutive months or if they are no longer a refugee, the grant will lapse.

Social assistance baseline indicators are set every five years in the national strategy and implemented through the Annual Performance Plans. There is a monitoring framework embedded in the five year strategies and the annual performance plans, but there is not an integrated monitoring and evaluation system at national/local levels.

Section 8 Social Assistance Act 13 of 2004

Social Grant Payment System (SOCPEN) is mainly used for: (i) processing applications for the old age, disability, war veterans, child support, foster child and care dependency grants, (ii) generating a pay file monthly for the approximately 17 million grants and (iii) automatically producing a list of beneficiaries due to be reassessed.