The differential impact of social-pension income on household poverty alleviation in three South African ethnic groups

Bibliographic Data

ID11199296
AuthorsMONICA FERREIRA (0000-0002-2283-5100, University of Cape Town, corresponding author)
Year2006
Volume26
Issue3
Pages337-354
Publication date2006-05-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAgeing and Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0144-686X • E-ISSN: 1469-1779
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0144686x0600482x
OpenAlexW1966406929
LanguageEN
Citations received10
References cited3

Social pension programmes play a key role in old-age support systems through their ability to reach vulnerable older persons. Pension income helps to sustain households affected by extreme poverty and vulnerability, by providing resources for spending that protects against vulnerability, and thereby they facilitate economic and social development. Under apartheid, South Africa's citizens were categorised according to race, and persons classified as Asian, black and coloured (mixed race) had less access to the opportunities and resources available to whites. Parity in the amount of social pension benefits paid to beneficiaries in the different ethnic categories was achieved only in 1993. The Non-Contributory Pensions and Poverty Study (NCPPS), conducted in Brazil and South Africa, has assessed the impact of social pension income on household poverty alleviation. This paper draws on the findings of the South African survey to analyse the differential effects of pension income on household poverty alleviation in three ethnic-geographic groups. Its data show a pervasive social and economic gradient of disadvantage among the groups, with rural-black households being most disadvantaged, urban-coloured households least disadvantaged, and urban-black households in between. The impact of pension income on household poverty alleviation has a similar pattern. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of the findings for the achievement of equity through informed policy interventions

Demographic economics · Development economics · Disadvantage · Disadvantaged · Economic growth · Economics · Equity (law) · Ethnic group · Geography · Household income · Pension · Political science · Poverty · Social pension · Socioeconomics · Vulnerability (computing) · Housing, Finance, and Neoliberalism · Income, Poverty, and Inequality · Poverty, Education, and Child Welfare

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