The Social Sector EPWP Incentive Grant is a specifically and exclusively appropriated budgetary allocation to incentivise eligible social sector provincial departments to strengthen and expand existing and potential EPWP programmes belonging to the Social Sector as identified and included in the Social Sector Log Frame to achieve a targeted number of Work Opportunities (W/O) and Full Time Equivalents. T his is a Division of Revenue Act 3 of 2016, Schedule 5A conditional grant transferred by National Public Works (Vote 11) for Provinces. The Incentive Grant as one of the critical fundamentals to guarantee that the 5-year EPWP Social Sector Plan 2014 – 2019 expresses focus on current and new areas for improvement and expansion to contribute to reducing unemployment by creating temporary employment for the unemployed annu ally.

The principles of the Social Sector EPWP Incentive Grant

• Eligibility based on contribution to EPWP, in that only performing sector departments are deemed eligible for the incentive
• Incentivising the expansion of performing programmes, whereby the incentive aims to provide additional funds to those provincial departments creating more work using their available budgets which show the potential to expand further
• Promoting the creation of “decent work” by supporting the sector to implement a minimum EPWP stipend or wage, to pay a stipend to un-paid participant regularly and on time and to promote the creation of full time equivalent jobs and an increased duration of work opportunities
• Focus on the creation of work for the EPWP target group in that not all projects and programmes of government create work that are or can be classified as EPWP. Therefore, given the wide variation of projects implemented by government it become imperative to always straightforward distinguish between EPWP and non-EPWP projects

Central to the Social Sector EPWP Incentive Grant is that the EPWP work and programmes must comply with the Ministerial Determination and the Code of Good Practice for Expanded Public Works Programme as issued by the Department of Labour as well other legislation e.g. Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases Act (COIDA) and Unemployment Insurance Fund Act (UIF)

The Incentive Grant fundamentally supplements existing funding resources for provincial social sector programmes by providing a dedicated source of expansion funding to performing provincial social sector programmes. These programmes are currently co-funded by national government (through conditional grants), provincial government (through the equitable share) and well as by civil society (non-government) organisations. As long as the provincial department continues to fund these programmes, and they create work, report on the EPWP Reporting System; the incentive grant can be accessed.

The Department of Social Development plans to utilize its allocation to strengthen or expand on all its current eligible programmes delivering services to communities within the Northern Cape. An increased Incentive allocation will enable the Department where possible to further expand or fund new social sector programmes whose outcomes will be to:

• Improve service delivery to communities by expanding the reach and quality of services
• Contribute towards improved levels of employment
• Improved opportunities for sustainable work through experience and learning gained

The Department of Social Development had for the 2017/18 Financial Year co-funded the following programmes through its equitable share allocation as well as the Social Sector EPWP Incentive Grant;

Social Sector EPWP Incentive Grant for 824 participants, namely:

• Soup Kitchen Administrators
• Youth Service Centre Administrators / Coordinators
• Disability Coordinators
• Balelapa Data Capturers
• Drop in Centre Cooks
• EPWP Coordinators
• Older Persons Service Centres
• Soup Kitchen Cooks

Equitable Share Allocation for 33 participants namely:

• Additional Soup Kitchen Cooks