How can you practically empower yourself, or the women and children you know, during this year’s 16 days of Activism? The Mail & Guardian‘s “HOW TO” guide will tackle a different area each day, including suing for maintenance, applying for a social grant and getting an interdict against an abusive partner.

Who qualifies for a child support grant:

Only people whose financial situation is below a certain level can get the grant. The test to decide is called a means test. The means test for the care dependency grant depends on the income of the entire family. In 2009 the means test for the Care Dependency Grant said that you can get the grant if the joint income of the applicant (you), spouse and child is less than R242 400 a year. You can also get a grant if you are a single person with an income of less than R121 200 a year. The income of foster parents will not be taken into consideration.

You cannot get the grant if the child is in a psychiatric hospital or receives care from a treatment centre. You also cannot get the Child Support Grant or the Care Dependency Grant. You can only get one of these kinds of grants for the child. However, you can get a Care Dependency Grant as well as a Foster Child Grant for the same child.

How much?
The amount of the grant changes every year. In 2009 the grant amount is R210 per month.

Who can apply for a child support grant?
The grant may be paid to the mother or father of the child, or to the person who is known as the ‘primary care giver’.

A primary care giver is a person who looks after the daily needs of the child. This person does not have to be related to the child. This means that it does not matter who the child is living with. Provided the child is poor, the person who the child is living with may apply for the grant. This does not include people such as domestic workers looking after their employers’ children or people who look after children in institutions of children, such as orphanages.

Important: The grant should follow the child. This means the grant is allocated to the primary care giver on behalf of the child, so that if someone else becomes the primary care-giver, then the grant should go to that person.

How to apply for a child support grant
You can apply for the care dependency by filling in an application form at your nearest District Welfare office or counter service point of a District Office. You do not need to pay anything to make the application.

There are a number of documents that you will have to hand in when you apply for the child support grant:

• Your South African identity document (ID), which must be bar-coded.
  
• The child’s birth certificate, which must have an ID number.
  
• A medical report for the child, which must say what the child is able to do. This is known as a functional assessment.
  
• If you are the foster parent of the child, the court order making you the foster parent.
  
• Proof of your marital status, such as a marriage certificate, divorce papers, or a death certificate of your spouse, or a sworn statement (affidavit) if you have never married.
  
• Proof of the income for you and your spouse, such as UIF card (‘blue card’), wage certificate, or pension details.
  
• Proof of the income of the child.

All copies of documents must be certified.

The Department of Social Development will give you a copy of your application or a dated receipt signed by the welfare officer. Keep this as proof that you have applied and are waiting for a reply.

If your application is not approved, you should get a letter from the Department of Social Development explaining why it has been rejected. You can appeal this decision in writing.

Remember: you must ask for written reasons for the refusal to give you a grant. The law says you must ask for reasons within 90 days of the date when you heard of the refusal.

Payment of a child support grant
There is supposed to be a waiting period of only up to three months before you get paid, but many applicants have waited for over a year. The first payment of the grant should include all the money for the months you have been waiting, unless you received some money from Welfare while you waited.

Payment can be made in the way that suits you:

• at a post office
  
• directly into your bank account
  
• you can collect it from the Department of Social Development at a payout time
  
• you can collect it from a welfare officer at a machine paypoint

If your money is not available when it should be, you can ask for a reason for the delay to be given to you in writing.

Helpful contacts:
South African Social Security Agency (Sassa)
Call their toll-free help line: 0800 601 011 for all your queries on social grants.

Remember: you can also apply for a grant for caring for a disabled child and caring for a foster child. Look out for our “HOW TO” guides for more information.

The above information is courtesy of the
paralegal manual produced by the Black Sash and the Education Training Unit, and Cape Gateway.

View more on our special report on 16 days of activism here.