Chairperson, the need for the amendment to the Social Assistance Bill was realised when the 2003-04 uptake of disability grants, spiked at more than three times the projected figure for that period.
An investigation was done to establish the cause of this sudden increase. The core findings were that there was no common definition for what constituted a disability, and that there was no uniform assessment, method or tool to determine whether a person had a disability. This situation resulted in errors of both inclusion and exclusion.
The Social Assistance Amendment Bill was an attempt to deal with the definition of "disability", which is an extremely complex matter. One of the criteria used in terms of the proposed Bill to determine whether a person has a disability, was whether he or she was able or not able to enter the labour market.
It seems as if that contentious issue was not going to be decided for now. Very real concerns were raised regarding current recipients of disability grants being disqualified from receiving a disability grant in terms of the proposed definition and that it could have led to more litigation against Sassa and the Department of Social Development.
The ACDP is of the opinion that the definition of "disability" should be exclusively in relation to social grants and not a broad definition. In discussing social assistance in the context of disability, the ACDP would like to draw attention to the present situation where children with disabilities are excluded from receiving social grants until they turn 18 years.
This is because their caregivers receive R280 per month. It is clearly an impossible situation as no one in their wildest dreams would think that a child with a disability could be cared for on that amount. The ACDP will be supporting this Bill as it is amended. I thank you. [Applause.]