Nelspruit - The long-awaited extension of the child-support grant has been rolled out in Mpumalanga.
The Mpumalanga arm of the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) has announced that the grant has been extended from 14 to 15 years, effective from January.
"This is an ongoing process and every year in January it will go up by one year," said spokesperson Senzeni Ngubeni.
The extension was approved by Cabinet in October last year after the government learnt that more than two million children between the age of 15 and 18 continued to live in conditions of extreme poverty.
Ngubeni encouraged people to register their eligible children, who must have been born on or after 1 October 1994.
"Sassa hopes the change marks a serious change to people's lives for the better," he said.
The news has been met with enthusiasm from people in the province. Thandi Zitha from Acornhoek, whose child grant was cut off in December, said she was happy that the government was making an effort to "care for the nation".
"I am not working and this extension has come at the right time. I've just lost my job and my husband is doing odd jobs around Gauteng, so this is going to help us," she said.
There are eight types of grants provided by Sassa, namely for elder persons, disability, war veterans, care dependency, foster children, child support, grant in aid, and social relief of distress. -
