In 2005, the Social Sector Cluster approved the Municipal Indigent Policy as part of the social wage package. The Municipal Indigent Policy was instituted to guide the national initiative to improve the access to free basic services and the overall standard of living for the indigents in the South African municipalities. CrossCheck Information and Credit Bureau has a specific and invested role in the manner that South African municipalities optimise their indigent grant programs.
The Indigent
The term indigent is defined as, “lacking the necessities of life”. The necessities for survival is defined (but not confined to the following requirements) in the South African Constitution as;
- Sufficient water
- Basic sanitation
- Refuse removal in denser settlements
- Environmental health
- Basic energy
- Health care
- Housing
- Food and clothing
The Municipal Indigent System
The Municipal Indigent System consists of a high-level framework and in terms of Section 74 of the Municipal Systems Act, municipal councils are required to adopt and implement a tariff policy. In Sections 74(i) and 74(ii) c, each municipality is required to take into account the subsidization of poor households. In order to do so, an indigent grant supports policy must be put in place.
Municipalities are required to implement strategies, policies and procedures to effectively uphold the law protecting the basic rights of the indigents in the country. The task of protecting these rights have become increasingly difficult to manage due to data integrity issues and other challenges. These challenges include;
- Budget constraints
- Data capturing
- Inconsistent application of the indigent evaluation criteria
- Insufficient verification processes
- High possibility of Fraud with incomplete audit trails
CrossCheck & The Indigent System Solution
The solution that CrossCheck Information and Credit Bureau has developed is specifically designed to address the challenges municipalities face and to aid in optimizing their indigent grant programs. This comprehensive indigent management solution includes;
- Verification of the existing Register: all beneficiaries in the indigent register will be authenticated in line with the current indigent policy
- Identifying erroneous indigents from the municipality’s existing indigent register: Beneficiaries who are incorrectly on the indigents list will be highlighted using data from an external source
- Extracting indigents from the debtor’s book: The debtor’s book will be profiled using external data sources to help unburden the municipality from carrying individuals who cannot afford to pay but are not profiled appropriately as indigents.
- Solutions to assist with the on-boarding of new indigents: Based on the findings from external sources and further verification, CrossCheck will identify new indigents and classification thereof.
- Minimizing indigent registration fraud.
- Database maintenance and cross-modelling to external sources.
This indigent management system can also be interfaced with a municipality’s financial system in order to determine whether or not an applicant has previously been registered in the system. This will enable us to efficiently monitor the dates these existing applicants can be monitored.
CrossCheck Information & Credit Bureau is a leading force in the public sector. CrossCheck’s services include the development of customised reports, designed to simplify the speedy interpretation and analysis of large datasets. This, in turn, delivers improved revenue enhancement as a result of informed decision making, based on relevant and improved data.
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Find out more about the importance of data in the South African Municipalities with CrossCheck’s latest article.
