Chairperson, hon Ministers, Members of Parliament and guests, I want to thank you for this opportunity to speak at the second reading of the Social Assistance Amendment Bill.
The mission of the Department of Social Development is to enable the poor, the vulnerable and the excluded within the South African society to secure a better life, and to do so in partnership with them, as well as those who are committed to building a caring society.
To give effect to this mission statement, the Department of Social Development provides a range of welfare services, developmental services and social security programmes. We can say without equivocation that these programmes have had a significant impact on the lives of the poor, destitute and vulnerable. Our programme on social assistance continues to improve the consumption capacity of the poor and contributes positively to their wellbeing. The cash transfer system has enabled millions of our people to meet their basic needs, and has empowered all these millions to invest in the future of their children through education. Whilst continuing to expand the reach of our programmes, we continually work towards improving the management and administration of social assistance to ensure that we pay the right person the right grant amount at the right time.
It is in pursuance of this objective that we reviewed the reliability and validity of the instruments used for the assessment of disability. We are also determined to ensure that all our administrative systems are geared towards treating the beneficiaries of our services with dignity and with due consideration for administrative justice. We, therefore, also carefully considered whether the application to the approval process within the SA Social Security Agency, Sassa, was just and fair.
It is in the light of these assessments that we sought to make changes to the administration of certain aspects of our social assistance programmes through the Social Assistance Amendment Bill. We sought to amend the definition of "disability", so that we are better placed to identify people who are permanently disabled, those who are temporarily disabled and those who suffer from chronic illnesses.
The current definition leaves too much discretion to individual medical practitioners and Sassa officials, resulting in significant variations in the way people are assessed for the purpose of receiving disability grants. This has resulted in people who are chronically ill qualifying for permanent and temporary disability grants. In some cases, people who are, indeed, permanently disabled were not able to receive support from the state based on the outcome of a medical assessment.
We have, therefore, introduced to Parliament the Social Assistance Amendment Bill with a view to redefining "disability" and implementing the Harmonised Assessment Tool, Hat. The intention behind these amendments was to provide a more rational and less arbitrary means of assessing disability through limiting the discretion of individual doctors and our officials.
With respect to enhancing administrative justice within our administration, we proposed the amendment of section 18 in the original Act as amended, or the Social Assistance Act of 2004 with a view to improving the review process by having more senior officials in Sassa reassessing the decision made by junior officials who have declined an application for a grant.
These proposed amendments were approved by Cabinet and duly submitted to Parliament for further deliberations and public participation. Let me state that when Cabinet approved the amendments as discussed, we also approved a process wherein the Department of Health would develop a strategy to manage the chronic illnesses.
I must admit that the Parliamentary process was very robust, and significant submissions were made by civil society organisations on their concerns and wishes about the proposed changes to the Social Assistance Act.
We are satisfied that the Portfolio Committee on Social Development approached this matter carefully and holistically, reflecting on the impact of such policy amendments and, therefore, proposed that those policy areas that have not been addressed by the Department of Health should first be dealt with before we pass this amendment.
The portfolio committee also called on the Department of Health to present the case regarding readiness from the perspective of the department. I should say at this point that it is possible that we did not fully appreciate the scale of work that needed to be done by the Department of Health to develop a detailed response to dealing with chronic illnesses.
In this instance, the changes that we proposed would have had the effect of removing from the grant system significant numbers of people who, due to their being chronically ill, were accessing the disability grants without the Department of Health's response to those who would fall out, through combating chronic illnesses and also through primary health care which will ensure access to heath services, amongst other things.
The Minister of Health emphasised that managing chronic illness effectively cannot be separated from improving the primary health care system. Given the level of work needed by Health to develop its capabilities to manage chronic illnesses, we accept the portfolio committee's recommendations that they refer the sections of proposed amendments pertaining to the definition of disability and related matters back to Cabinet.
Indeed, as a department deeply concerned with the wellbeing of South Africa's most vulnerable groups, we welcome this development. If the amendments went through without the appropriate response from the health system, many people might have been left without any form of support from the state.
I am thankful that the checks and balances imposed by robust committee debates have made us aware that even the most noble intentions could have negative, albeit unintended outcomes. We are, however, pleased that Parliament has decided to adopt some sections of the Bill which will make the administrative process fairer and more responsive to our clients.
The amendments will enable Sassa to reduce the backlog in the appeals system and expedite the process of reconsideration of a decision to decline an application for a social assistance grant.
The Ministers of Social Development and Health will revert to Cabinet to discuss how we aim to proceed with the management of disabilities and chronic illnesses. I trust that civil society organisations that engaged us on this matter will also use their similar legislative advocacy skills and resources to assist in the passing of good policies and laws, such as the proposed National Health Insurance, NHI, and other comprehensive social security measure.
In conclusion, I want to thank the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Social Development and all the committee members for processing this Bill through the public hearings in Parliament. We accept the deferring of clauses dealing with the definition of "disability" and related matters and also the passing of the remaining two clauses of this Bill. I thank you. [Applause.]