Social Protection Act, no. 12 of 2025.

This Act, divided into six Part, provides a framework for the administration of non-contributory social protection interventions. The Act applies to non-contributory social protection, intended as a social protection intervention where eligibility to a benefit is not conditional on the payment of contributions by the beneficiary. The Act aims at achieving the following goals: protecting persons in need against risks and contingencies; building human capital capabilities and resilience of persons in need; promoting the well-being of persons in need. The implementation of this Act is guided by the following principles: equity, social justice, inclusiveness, non-discrimination and participatory governance; promotion of a rights-based approach to the delivery of social protection interventions; adequacy, accessibility and sustainability of social protection interventions; evidence based social protection programming; life-cycle approach to social protection. Part II concerns the establishment of the National Board for Social Protection, and covers the following matters: specification of functions of the Board, including: providing social assistance and social care to vulnerable persons, coordinating social protection interventions, services and programmes, establishing and maintaining a social protection registry and ensuring continuous collection and disaggregation of data, undertaking civic education on social protection; powers and composition of the Board.
Part III concerns administration of social protection and provisions of social protection services to the following persons in need: orphans or vulnerable children, poor older members of society, persons with disabilities, persons in extreme poverty, persons affected by shocks, unpaid, deficient and unsupported caregivers. This Part focuses on the following matters: social protection benefits and incentives; eligibility for social protection; rights and obligations of a beneficiary; termination of social protection benefits. Part IV concerns offences; fraud; false information; unlawful disclosure of information. Part V and VI concern creation of the social protection fund, legal proceedings.