This paper builds on an investigation into social security and HIV/AIDS carried out by the by the Economic Policy Research Institute (EPRI) and the Social Disadvantage Research Centre in the Department of Social Policy and Social Work at the University of Oxford, in conjunction with the School of Public Health at the University of the Western Cape. Employing a small purposive survey of severely poor individuals in the Mount Frere district of the Eastern Cape, the research team evaluated the impact of HIV/AIDS and other chronic illnesses on poverty, assessing the role of social security. This paper carries the research further, analyzing the data in order to identify linkages between the social security status of the household, the health of members in the household and key socio-economic variables reflecting income, expenditure, investment and human capital accumulation.