Social Security Coverage among the Working-Age Population in South Africa

Comprehensive and well-designed social security systems are critical to ensure that populations are adequately covered against various sources of adverse risk and volatility. Using descriptive and micro-econometric techniques on household survey and administrative data, this report provides an analysis of social security coverage among the working-age population in South Africa from 2010 to 2022. We show that coverage of social assistance has improved but remains low and varies considerably across demographic groups. Social assistance coverage is low among both the unemployed as well as a non-negligible share of the employed who are in working poverty. Social insurance coverage is also low, particularly among the unemployed and informally employed, and conversely has fallen in recent years. We also examine the performance of labour centres in the processing of unemployment insurance claims and highlight the limitations of and potential for existing datasets to better track social security coverage to aid future research and evidence-based policymaking.