2025 Budget Speech: Godongwana Allocates R284.7b for Social Grants, Pensioners to Get R130 More

• Enoch Godongwana delivered the 2025 Budget Speech on 12 March 2025 to the National Assembly in Cape Town
• The Minister of Finance announced that R284.7 billion would be allocated to social grants in 2025/26
• The allocation means that social grants will see an increase this year, more than last year's increase

Briefly News journalist Byron Pillay has dedicated a decade to reporting on the South African political landscape, crime, and social issues. He spent ten years working for a local newspaper before transitioning to online journalism.

WESTERN CAPE — The Minister of Finance has finally delivered the 2025 Budget Speech to the National Assembly at the Parliament Dome in Cape Town.

Enoch Godongwana delivered the highly-anticipated budget, less than a month after the first speech was postponed, announcing that there would be an increase for social grant recipients.

Grants to increase during 2025/26

Read also

EFF and DA unite against VAT increase, parties won't support 2025 budget in its current form

Addressing the topic of social grants, the minister announced that R284.7 billion was allocated to grants in 2025/26.

This means that the Old Age grant will be increased by R130 to R2,315. Disability grants will experience the same increase in April. The Child Support Grant will go up by R30 to R560 per month while the Foster Care grant will increase by R70.

An increase from last year’s budget

The R130 increase for the Old Age and Disability grants is higher than last year's increase.

In 2024, the increase for Old Age and Disability was only R100. Foster Care went up by R50 last year, while Child Support only went up by R20.

No increase to Social Relief of Distress grant

Before the budget speech, there was a lot of talk about the Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant. Godongwana admitted that he was considering scrapping the SRD grant so that there would be no need for a VAT increase.

Read also

Budget speech: economist weighs in as government sets aside R2.4 trillion in consolidated spending

The move was criticised by civil society organisations who accused the finance minister of not caring about the poor. During his speech, Gondongwana opted not to scrap the grant but extended it until the end of March 2026. The grant was due to expire at the end of the current month.

"The Covid-19 Social Relief of Distress (SRD), in its current form, will be extended by a year to end March 2026. R35.2 billion is allocated for this purpose," Godongwana said.

"As announced by the President in the State of the Nation Address, the SRD will be used as a basis for the introduction of a sustainable form of income support for unemployed people," he added.

Approximately 9 million people currently rely on the R370 a month but there are close to 17 million that have applied for the SRD grant.

EFF and DA reject budget speech

In a related article, the Democratic Alliance and Economic Freedom Fighters expressed dismay at the budget speech.

Read also

Budget Speech 2025: "No Finance Minister is ever happy to increase taxes": Godongwana amid VAT hike

The 2025 Budget Speech didn't include a 2% Value-Added Tax increase but did feature a 0.5% hike.

Briefly News reported that the DA and EFF stated that they would not support the budget in its current form.

Proofreading by Roxanne Dos Ramos, copy editor at Briefly.co.za.

Source: Briefly News