Here Is Why Many Of the R350 Grant Payments Were Delayed
Unemployed South Africans benefit from the Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant. Many people who applied for the grant have not been approved for payment.
(SRD) grants have not been paid to millions of South Africans due to several challenges.
R350 Grant Payments Were Delayed
Alternative legislation was used to reintroduce the grant, which created some of the challenges the agency now faces.
process of paying the SRD grant beneficiaries has been delayed by several challenges, according to Brenton van Vrede from Sassa. The new system for applying for SRD grants is one of these challenges.
Sassa had to use alternative legislation to provide the SRD grant after the National State of Disaster ended in April 2022. Additionally, Sassa adjusted the grant qualification criteria for the SRD grant in addition to providing it under the Social Assistance Act.
In order to implement these changes, Sassa had to build and improve their Sassa SRD grant application website. Sassa has been playing catch up ever since these improvements took time to implement, resulting in delayed SRD payments.
As a result of further amendments made in August, Van Vrede said further delays have been experienced. These amendments, however, made the SRD grant more accessible to more people.
This amendment in August would have allowed us to see a very large drop in grant in July if it hadn’t been made. In order to publish the amendments, we withheld the July payment a little bit. The amendments were published in mid-August, and then the July payment was assessed.
In the next two months, Sassa will finalize the assessment of August 2022 SRD grant applications. Upon completion, the agency hopes to begin processing September 2022 SRD grant applications by the end of the month.
Also read:
Reconfirm Sassa SRD Application September 2022 Amended COVID-19 SRD regulations–Does SASSA no longer require clients to reconfirm their grants every three months? Since amendments to regulations have been made, clients are no longer required to resubmit screening responses.
