Staff Reporter.
@Gallo Images.
With Easter falling on the first weekend of April this year, South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) beneficiaries will have to wait a few days extra in order to access their grants after the Good Friday and Family Day public holidays.
Also in April, the extended Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant of R350 a month, will come to an end. In his State of the Nation address in February, President Cyril Ramaphosa said that the Covid-19 emergency benefit would be extended for three months only.
“This has proven to be an effective and efficient short-term measure to reduce the immediate impact on the livelihoods of poor South Africans,” he said during the address.
There is no set payment date for the R350 SRD grant, with the agency saying that successful applicants will receive payment from 8 April 2021 onwards.
At the end of February,Social Development Minister Lindiwe Zulu, said 9.7 million people had applied for the grant. About 6 million beneficiaries were receiving the emergency stipend. By the end of April, the department estimates that it would have distributed R22 billion.
The grant payout dates are:
- Older persons: Tuesday, 6 April 2021,
- Disability grants: Wednesday, 7 April 2021, and
- Children’s grants: Thursday, 8 April 2021.
This week, Sassa said there has been a hiccup in Government’s pension system: “Our Social Pensions system is experiencing connectivity problems. Our technicians are working flat out to return it to normality. Please accept our sincere apologies. We will inform you soon as we are back online.”
Meanwhile the South African Post Office (SAPO) will cough up R17.2 million to pension grants beneficiaries whose accounts were defrauded since February 2020.
Zulu explained that the authorised deductions were managed by Sassa before the social grants were paid to beneficiaries and that they were only effected with the consent of the beneficiary.
“The system is secure, and it is very unlikely that any unauthorised or illegal deductions are occurring; however, should this be the case, details can be forwarded to Sassa for further investigation.”
Zulu said in instances where social grant beneficiaries elected to receive the social grant into their personal bank accounts, they were able to authorise deductions and stop orders, and cancel these if needed with their bank.
It is possible that abuse of deductions may occur in this commercial banking space. However, Sassa does not have any control over accounts held with commercial banks. Should a beneficiary have challenges with their bank, they can choose to have their grant paid via the SASSA/ SAPO payment system, which does not allow for deductions.”
Zulu also said a total of 17 Sassa officials have been prosecuted for their involvement in fraudulent activities over the past 12 months.
She revealed that the total amount that was defrauded from February 2020 to January 2021 was R17 279 523.95.