Lesotho

The laws on pensions, work injury, sickness and maternity were enacted in Lesotho after the 1966 independence. The Old-Aged Pension, introduced in 2005, aims to provide elderly people with a source of income. It provides a cash transfer of US$107.88 per month to all citizens aged 70 and older. The other social assistance programmes available in Lesotho are the Public Assistance and Child Grant Programmes. The former has an objective of improving the living conditions of extremely destitute people while the latter aims to improve the living standards and health status of orphans and vulnerable children. The Child Grant Programme provides a quarterly cash transfer that ranges between US$77 and US$162 and the Public Assistance programme provides a monthly cash transfer of US$68.46. The social assistance spending, which is mainly domestically funded, was 5.55 percent of GDP in 2013, translating to US$111 per poor person per year.