NATIONAL NEWS - The first day of Sassa grant payments for older persons and persons with disabilities have been met with challenges, the organisation said in a statement this morning.
Shivani Wahab, communications manager for Sassa, said that due to a technical error on the system, a total of 435 004 clients have had duplicate payments.
“Approximately 83,5% of social grant clients in the Western Cape will receive duplicate payments unless the banks are able to reverse this prior to clients accessing their social grants.”
Sassa has contacted the South African Reserve Bank to alert all banks of these duplicate payments. She said Sassa will recover funds from those clients where payment reversals are not possible.
Accommodating the vulnerable
In response to the Covid-19 pandemic and the lockdown, Sassa brought the social grant payment date forward and set aside today and tomorrow, 4 and 5 May, as special days for older persons and persons with disabilities. “This was implemented to avoid long queues, overcrowding and non-compliance with social distancing and hygiene guidelines.”
According to Wahab all other social grants will be available on Wednesday 6 May. Some older persons use one card to also receive child support and foster child grants. In such cases they will be able to access all linked grants from the 4th of every month.
Clients who access Sassa paypoints directly for their social grants may do so on Thursday 7 May.
The money is safe
Sassa reminds clients that once the money is in the account, it will remain there until it is needed. Money deposited into a client’s account is safe and will not be taken back if not used.
“There is no need to rush to withdraw cash on the first day,” Wahab said. “We deposit funds into your account. The Sassa card can be used as a debit card to pay for purchases, therefore it is not necessary to withdraw cash.”
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