Grannies may lose cash for grandkids

More than 300000 grannies caring for their orphan grandchildren could lose their R770 foster-child grant.

In a landmark judgment in the High Court in Johannesburg this week, Judge Halima Salduker ruled that grandparents had a legal obligation to support their grandchildren.

The court ruled that while biological parents, adoptive parents and adult siblings had a "duty of support" to look after the child, aunts and uncles were eligible for foster-child grants because they weren't responsible for supporting nieces and nephews.

Child-law experts were concerned this week that grandparents would now be forced to survive on the R280 child-support grant.

The ruling will also hit the more than 700000 applicants for foster-child grants.

The Children's Institute at the University of Cape Town said there was a huge backlog in new applications for the grants.

Yesterday, the Department of Social Development said it hoped to introduce a "kinship" benefit next year to help those taking care of members of their extended families.

Judge Salduker's ruling is binding on all Children's Courts in Gauteng - and could set a precedent for the rest of SA.

The judgment was the result of an appeal by the Centre for Child Law at the University of Pretoria against a ruling in the Children's Court in Krugersdorp.

A great aunt and her husband, who had been receiving a child-support grant for their grand-nephew, 12, applied for a foster-child grant because they were impoverished.

The Krugersdorp court turned down the application.

According to the Children's Act, a foster-child grant is available if "the child has been abandoned or orphaned and is without any visible means of support".

A social worker has to investigate whether the child satisfies the legal requirements.

Judge Salduker said social workers had to examine whether "there is an obligation on any person to provide a duty of support to the minor child, including the current caregiver".

She said: "To exclude children who are in placement with families who are related to them from receiving foster-care grants would be contradictory to the terms of the Children's Act".

Ann Skelton, director of the University of Pretoria's Centre for Child Law, said there was now "a real likelihood" that, when a foster-care order was reviewed, the magistrate would turn down the application - and social workers might not even forward a grandmother's application.

Paula Proudlock of the Children's Institute at the University of Cape Town said there were about 350000 orphans living with relatives who were receiving the foster-child grant.

"The foster-care system was designed for 50000 children, but it has 544 000 children in it."

Selwyn Jehoma, deputy director-general for social security in the Department of Social Development, said these grants wouldn't be "summarily" stopped.

"The minister is aware of the potential destitution that may result ...Where they may be left destitute, they will have the option of the social relief-of-distress grant until the introduction of the kinship benefit."

He warned, however, that the new benefit would not be as high as the foster-child grant.