Question NW2816 to the Minister of Social Development
17 October 2022 - NW2816
Masango, Ms B to ask the Minister of Social Development
(1) Whether her department intends to bridge the gap between the salaries of social workers of her department and the social workers that are employed by Non-Profit Organisations (NPOs) in post funded by her department; if not why not; if so, what are the relevant (a) details and (b) timelines in this regard; (2) On what date did her department last review and/or benchmark salaries of the social workers employed by her department and funded by her department but employed by an NPO; (3) Whether this benchmarking was done at a provincial or national level; if not, what is the position in this regard; if so, what were the findings? NW3411E
Reply:
a) DSD partially funds NPOs for programmes which includes operations and staffing in terms of the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) provisions governing transfer funding. The Department’s transfer funding budgets have been reduced along with all other budget items due to the current economic situation in the country, which has curtailed the prospects of funding increases to NPOs in the medium term.
b) Refer to (a) above
2. The funding of social worker programmes in the NPO sector is reviewed annually by the department at the provincial level in an effort to maximize the allocation within the department’s budget constraints. Benchmarking of social worker posts within the public sector is done nationally in terms of the relevant Occupational Specific Dispensation.
Salaries in the Public Service are reviewed centrally. In this regard, the Director-General issued DPSA Circular 21 of 2021, dated 04 November 2021. All salaries were adjusted by 1, 5% across all levels.
3. See response to question 2.