Income transfers are a means of alleviating poverty. In order to utilise this\ntype of poverty enhancing mechanism, it is necessary to understand the\npotential poverty reduction effect it may have. In this article, Reza Daniels\ndiscusses the likely impact of income transfers on poverty and inequality\nlevels in the subsistence fisheries sector of South Africa. The article allows\nus to answer some of the following questions: what is the impact of the\nhypothetical transfer on income levels in the target population, who are the\nlikely beneficiaries and why, and what are the opportunity costs of the\ntransfer given limited state resources?