Abstract
More than half of the youth between the ages of 18-25 years are either out of school or unemployed and living below the poverty line. The unemployed youth is not covered by the social assistance system as the Child Support Grant is received until age of 18, and other social security resources for youth are accessed through post-school skills development programmes like universities, colleges and other government subsidies skills development programmes. Therefore, it is clear that there is a gap for people between 18-25 when it comes to accessing social assistance, more especially for young Black women. The intention of this study was to examine what happens to young Black women after the age of 18 when they suddenly have to exit the social security system. Most research has focused on mothers who are child grant recipients. Using a qualitative approach, the study aimed to explore how young unemployed black women between the ages of 18-25, without children and are previous beneficiaries of the social grant system are surviving financially without access to the social security system, higher education and wage work. The study made use of a qualitative approach and collected data through using the snowball method. Through this, the study interviewed ten participants and the Black feminist perspective was used as a theoretical framework. The experiences of the participants although somewhat similar differed and those experiences shaped what they thought to be survival strategies and how they went about surviving unemployment, amongst other social problems faced by young Black women in South Africa.
M.A.