Social aid is the oldest and largest income-tested programme in Mauritius managed by the Ministry and provides assistance to those incapable of financially supporting themselves temporarily or permanently. A paradigm shift in the current policy was engaged to ensure the transfer of social aid to the poorest decile of the population by better targeting beneficiaries with the aim to have maximum coverage, adequacy, sustainability and efficiency gains.

 

The Social Register of Mauritius (SRM), a national dynamic database, was set up in 2008 with the application of the Proxy-Means Test as a tool to determine eligibility towards social assistance schemes. Using this tool, the Ministry has been able to start the consolidation of a central database of all those requesting support and has already started using the information to design of new policies.

 

Presently some 41,000 households have registered for different schemes associated with the Social Register.