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People with disabilities (PWD) face physical and attitudinal barriers to participation in education, the labour market and development processes. In South Africa, there is a need for appropriate social assistance for PWD. Currently this is done through a means-tested cash transfer known as the Disability Grant (DG). This study aims to explore whether the economic effects of DG are similar for DG recipients, including the interaction with disability-related costs, and intra-household decision-making processes.

The findings about DG can be summarised as follows:

• the grant is primarily used for basic needs, school expenses, and sometimes water and electricity
• it is often consumed in households that have no other or very little income; this means often households remain poor and are vulnerable to financial shocks and debt to cover basic needs
• the DG has sometimes contributed to shock mitigation, but termination of DG for review was in itself a financial shock, necessitating going into debt
• the combination of poverty and high unemployment increases reliance on DG by PWD and their household.
  

The research gives recommendations for more inclusive treatments as follows:

• although DG can be a mean to inclusion, disability cannot be relegated solely to a social assistance domain, and an inter-sectoral approach is needed
• consequently, disability can be integrated into development programmes aimed at addressing poverty and exclusion
• such programmes should be on the one hand "disability targeted" with specific initiatives to empower PWD
• on the other hand, they should be "disability mainstreamed" in addressing inequalities between disabled and non-disabled people.

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