NATIONAL NEWS - The South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) said it has kept its promise to pay at least 100 000 clients who applied for the Special Covid-19 Social Relief of Distress (SRD) by the end of May.
Paseka Letsatsi, a spokesperson for Sassa, said in a press release earlier today that they received about 13 million enquiries. To date, over 3,5 million have been checked to confirm if they are active Sassa grant recipients, are on the UIF database or receive a NSFAS stipend, said Letsatsi.
Busisiwe Memela, Sassa CEO, said about 6,3 million of the 13 million were valid, complete applications. The rest were either duplicate applications, incomplete, had inconsistent data, or were just enquiries. According to Memela, about 116 867 clients were paid the special Covid-19 SRD grant.
She said that about 1 236 492 clients are being finalised through verification by Sars to confirm if they have an income. “A total of 666 381 clients have been approved and Sassa is awaiting banking details information. Over 1 597 127 have been disapproved since the applicants have some other means of income.”
Memela reminded applicants to respond immediately to the SMS received from Sassa and provide their banking details through the secure link.
“This will enable us to ensure payments are processed without delay to all eligible applicants. Citizens are reminded that there is no cut-off date for applications for this special relief grant. Anyone who meets the qualifying criteria, should lodge an application without delay.”
Beneficiaries can also check the status of their applications online here, or by adding GovChat WhatsApp on 082 046 8553. Simply open a chat, type “Status” and Send.
Sassa has also successfully implemented the increase of the child support grant by R300 per child and an additional R500 per caregiver from June to October 2020. All other existing grants, except for Grant in Aid, were increased by R250 per month from May to October 2020.
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