The impact of the current social security system in South Africa on socio-economic development has been largely ineffective. The severe nature and wide extent of poverty indicates that social assistance programmes are not adequately addressing the poverty problem in many of the households that receive grants, and are excluding many households that are poor. Social security grants are based on the means test, a procedure that selects beneficiaries based on certain eligibility criteria. The inability of the social security system to address poverty and improve economic growth has been attributed to various drawbacks associated with the means test. In the context of South Africa, high costs and low coverage gaps have been cited as major drawbacks to means testing. In light of research findings that show that social security policy based on targeting mechanisms is not effective in reducing poverty, it is informative to consider the possibilities of non-targeting mechanisms, namely the introduction of a Basic Income Grant. This paper examines the transmission mechanisms through which the Basic Income Grant may potentially support economic growth and job creation.