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Paper short abstract

Although there is literature on cash transfers, including the South African Child Support Grant (CSG), there is limited research on how transfers for children can support youth transitions. Soweto households are sampled to assess savings and assets built for youth transition for long-term outcomes.

Paper long abstract

Many countries have adopted diverse social protection strategies to enhance cash transfer beneficiaries’ productivity through livelihood support, education, and targeted training for specific life stages (Patel et al., 2023). While social assistance programmes hold potential as transformative mechanisms, their impact depends on design and integration with complementary initiatives. One possible mechanism for making cash transfers transformative is through savings and building assets. Bastagli et al., (2019) and Churchill et al., (2024) have argued that greater poverty alleviation could be attained if recipients save a portion of the transfer income received.

While there is a significant body of literature on cash transfers, including the South African Child Support Grant (CSG), a means tested cash transfer, and evidence regarding their impacts in alleviating childhood poverty (Garman et al., 2022; Patel et al., 2018; Zembe-Mkabile et al., 2015), there is limited research on how cash transfers for children can support youth transitions towards long-term outcomes such as higher education and training enrolment, employment seeking, and starting an entrepreneurial business using savings and asset building.

This article investigated how the CSG might help young people transition towards long-term outcomes. The aim was to examine whether and how caregivers and children receiving the CSG in Soweto, saved money and built assets for youth transition. A qualitative research method was used, within an interpretivist paradigm.

The findings point to a number of interconnected causes the inability to save and build assets for youth transitions and the ways that structural realities influence aspirations and behaviour.