Editing Economy of South Africa (section)

===Social benefits===
South Africa has about three times as many recipients of social benefits as it has income tax-payers, an extremely high ratio by international standards.<ref name="OECDsurvey38"/> After 1994 resources have been rapidly reallocated to black households: while approximately 40% of aggregate social spending was directed to whites and 43% to blacks in the mid-1980s, by the late 1990s fully 80% of total social spending was assigned to blacks and less than 10% to whites.<ref name=cape-cornell>{{cite web|last1=Kanbur |first1=Ravi |last2=Bhorat |first2=Haroon |author-link1=Ravi Kanbur |title=Poverty and Well-being in Post-Apartheid South Africa: An Overview of Data, Outcomes and Policy |url=http://www.arts.cornell.edu/poverty/kanbur/BhoratKanbur.pdf |publisher=University of Cape Town; Cornell University |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120616144602/http://www.arts.cornell.edu/poverty/kanbur/BhoratKanbur.pdf |archive-date=16 June 2012 |page=6 |date=September 2005}}</ref> At present, blacks contribute some 50% of total government transfers, while receiving roughly 80%.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2019-09-16|title=Racial inequality and demographic change in South Africa|url=https://www.wider.unu.edu/publication/racial-inequality-and-demographic-change-south-africa|access-date=2020-10-16|website=UNU-WIDER}}</ref>

The Unemployment Insurance Fund is financed out of premiums, contributions and benefits depend on earnings, and focuses on insuring workers against the risk of income loss.<ref name=poverty-oecd>{{cite web|title=Trends in South African Income Distribution and Poverty since the Fall of Apartheid |series=OECD Social, Employment and Migration Working Papers |url=http://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/social-issues-migration-health/trends-in-south-african-income-distribution-and-poverty-since-the-fall-of-apartheid_5kmms0t7p1ms-en |publisher=OECD |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120312074111/http://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/social-issues-migration-health/trends-in-south-african-income-distribution-and-poverty-since-the-fall-of-apartheid_5kmms0t7p1ms-en |archive-date=12 March 2012 |page=47 |date=28 May 2010 |doi=10.1787/5kmms0t7p1ms-en |last1=Leibbrandt |first1=Murray |last2=Woolard |first2=Ingrid |last3=Finn |first3=Arden |last4=Argent |first4=Jonathan}}</ref>

====Social assistance grants====
Social assistance grants are non-contributory, income-tested benefits provided by the state to the poor, and are financed out of general tax revenues without any links between contributions and benefits.<ref name=poverty-oecd/> They are provided in the form of: grants for older persons; disability grants; war veterans grants; care dependency grants; foster child grants; child support grants; grant-in-aid; social relief of distress.<ref name=sassa>{{cite web|title=You and Your Grants 2011/12 |url=https://sassa.help/ |publisher=South African Social Security Agency |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111216024951/http://www.sassa.gov.za/Portals/1/Documents/d54e383b-7e3d-4c96-8aa2-4cc7d32bc78f.pdf |archive-date=16 December 2011}}</ref>

The state old age pension, received by over 80% of the elderly,<ref name=houseincome17>{{cite web|title=Fifteen Years On: Household Incomes in South Africa |url=http://levinsohn.commons.yale.edu/files/2010/10/15_years_51.pdf |publisher=University of Cape Town; Yale University; NBER |author1=[[Murray Leibbrandt]] |author2=James Levinsohn |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130510202938/http://levinsohn.commons.yale.edu/files/2010/10/15_years_51.pdf |archive-date=10 May 2013 |page=17}}</ref> is a non-contributory pension and pays more than twice median per capita Black income, thus representing an important source of income for a third of all Black households in the country.<ref name=transfers-nber>{{cite journal |first1=Cally |last1=Ardington |first2=Anne |last2=Case |first3=Victoria |last3=Hosegood |year=2009 |title=Labor Supply Responses to Large Social Transfers: Longitudinal Evidence from South Africa |journal=American Economic Journal: Applied Economics |volume=1 |issue=1 |pages=22–48 |doi=10.1257/app.1.1.22 |pmid=19750139 |pmc=2742429}}</ref> It pays a maximum of R1,780 (as of July 2019)<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.gov.za/services/social-benefits-retirement-and-old-age/old-age-pension|title=Old age pension {{!}} South African Government|website=gov.za|access-date=2019-07-20}}</ref> to people who reach pension age without access to private pensions.<ref name=transfers-nber/>

The child support grant provides R420 per month, per child (as of July 2019)<ref name=":1">{{cite web|url=https://www.gov.za/services/child-care-social-benefits/child-support-grant|title=Child support grant|publisher=South Africa Government Services}}</ref> for every child in the household younger than 18,<ref name=":1" /> and benefited 9.1 million children by April 2009.<ref name=houseincome17/>

The war veterans grant is provided to former soldiers who fought in the Second World War or the Korean War, and pays a maximum amount of R1,800 per month (as of July 2019).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.gov.za/services/social-benefits-retirement-and-old-age/war-veterans-grant|title=War veterans grant|website=War veterans grant|publisher=South Africa Government Services}}</ref>