Transitioning to Sustainable Administrative Gatekeeping in Access to Social Grants for South African Adult Persons with Disabilities

This article explores the efficiency in the administration of social grants for adult persons with disabilities (PWDs) in the Northern Cape province of South Africa. The focus, in particular, is on explaining why, despite a gatekeeping element, adult PWDs presenting with the same medical condition, with mild or no verifiable impairment, keep returning and are allowed through the system, only to be rejected again, citing the same reasons as before. Administrative gatekeeping, as illustrated in the 2011 Social Grants Disability Management Model, does not extend beyond (i) verifying the correctness of supporting documents and (ii) checking documented proof of medical history to ascertain that applicants of social grants for adult PWDs are not booked for medical assessments within three months of their last assessment. This points to a weakness in the system, as the screening officials cannot turn away applicants of social grants for adult PWDs for any other reason once the documents are verified as correct. Here, we report the findings from responses to structured telephone interviews and structured face-to-face interviews with applicants of social grants for adult PWDs who are residents of the Northern Cape province of South Africa. We conclude that socio-economic circumstances, rather than impairment, are the main drivers for adult PWDs to keep on applying for social grants for adult PWDs and we offer some strategies for addressing this predicament to contribute to a sustainable and an efficient, effective, and economical administration process.