Lion to stop funeral cover for welfare kids

Johannesburg - Lion of Africa Life Assurance said it would stop selling funeral cover to child welfare recipients after the government this month said it would ban the practice to protect some of the country’s most vulnerable people.

“Any doubt that was cast on the applicable regulations in the last few months has been cleared up by the minister and is in line with our expectations and understanding,” Lion of Africa said in an e-mailed statement on Monday.

South Africa’s Minister of Social Development Bathabile Dlamini on May 6 said she would introduce new regulations that would better protect the 16.9 million welfare recipients from companies deducting money straight off social grant payments for services.

One of those is to stop deductions from child grants, which make up the bulk of the payments.