Budget 2025: Implications for children

PRETORIA, 22 May 2025: The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) South Africa acknowledges the challenging circumstances under which the national budget was developed and the South African government’s commitment to find a balance between financial stability and ensuring the progressive realisation of children’s social and economic rights.

UNICEF is pleased to note that overall expenditure is expected to grow by 1.2 per cent in real terms over the medium-term and that programmes that make a meaningful difference to the lives of children, particularly basic education, health, and social protection show marginal above-inflationary increases.

UNICEF also welcomes the progress that has been made in providing basic services at the local government level. The reduction in the frequency of load-shedding has benefited the millions of children from under-served communities who use public clinics and after-school facilities, and electricity availability is vital for the functioning of both institutions.

While the country’s fiscal room has diminished because of the aborted Value Added Tax (VAT) proposal, it is encouraging to note that spending on social grants has been maintained - notably the Child Support Grant and the Care Dependency Grant. Reasonable questions could be asked about the adequacy of these increases, especially in the context of a rising cost-of-living in the country.

As a recently launched National Planning Commission (NPC) and UNICEF South Africa Study has shown, the prices of goods and services have increased by 95 per cent between 2011 and 2023. Hence some form of compensatory spending remains important to shield households and children that are exposed to rising costs. 

“We urgently need comprehensive, sustained, and integrated efforts to protect children’s well-being during periods of economic hardship. It is important that we safeguard the spending on children’s programmes, given the rising cost-of-living the country faces and the need to maintain spending on human capital” says Christine Muhigana, Country Representative of UNICEF South Africa.

Ms. Muhigana acknowledged the efforts of Government, while emphasising that a clear and quantifiable statement on how much the country spends on children will help fully assess the implementation of children’s rights.

While Budget 2025 contains encouraging news for children, UNICEF is concerned about specific funding challenges that may negatively impact child-focused services. Some of these include:

• The decision not to extend the food items that are exempted from the Value Added Tax will place more pressure on poor households to provide their families with adequate and nutritious food.
• Further uncertainty about the funding of the Social Relief of Distress (SRD) Grant, which is considered one of the stabilising factors in South Africa. In fact, the National Planning Commission and UNICEF South Africa’s “Trends in the cost of living” publication shows that the poorest households gained increases in per capita household income because of the introduction of the SRD grant.
• The decision to increase the fuel levy will have negative implications for households that spend a substantial part of their income on transport to access work and learning opportunities.
• It is also not clear whether improved infrastructure spending involves only economic infrastructure as opposed to social infrastructure, particularly clinics and schools.
• Given the multiple nature of the issues that children face, UNICEF has been calling for the establishment of an annual or bi-annual children’s budget. This would enable stakeholders to gauge the extent to which Government spends on critical interventions, including child protection as well as prevention and early intervention services.

In view of the challenging context and recognising that investment in children’s programmes takes time to produce tangible results, UNICEF and social partners stand ready to assist the government in addressing the bottlenecks that impede effective service delivery for children.

“South Africa has shown itself resilient and adaptable in addressing multiple crises and through our collective efforts and determination, we can build a more equitable and prosperous future for all children and their families,” notes Ms. Muhigana.

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About UNICEF: UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, to build a better world for everyone. For more information about UNICEF and its work for children visit www.unicef.org.  Follow UNICEF on Twitter and Facebook

For more information, please contact: Sudeshan Reddy, Communications Specialist,  UNICEF South Africa, Cell: + 27 82 5613970, sureddy@unicef.org