The South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) will continue paying the Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant until at least March 2024. The grant serves as a critical relief measure for millions of unemployed individuals every month.
The SRD grant does not have a fixed payment date, while permanent Sassa grants have specific payment dates every month, beneficiaries of the grant must wait for an SMS confirming that their money is available for collection.
There is no fixed payment date for the special Covid-19 SRD grant
The date that appears on the status of a beneficiary's SRD grant application is not a payment date. This date reflected on the status is the date when the grant was captured in the system.
After the grant is captured in the system the beneficiary can receive the SMS at any time.
After receiving an SMS from Sassa informing them that their money is available for collection, Beneficiaries of the SRD grant can collect their money at several retail stores including Pick n Pay, Shoprite, Checkers and Boxer stores. Alternatively, beneficiaries can choose to have their grant paid directly into their bank account.
Sassa encouraged SRD grant beneficiaries to keep on verifying their contact details. This will ensure that they are still correct and that no complications or delays occur with the payment of their grants.
SRD Grant Recipients More Likely To Seek Employment.
Research for the University of Cape Town (UCT) indicates that beneficiaries of the SRD grant are more likely to seek work than individuals not receiving the relief mechanism.
Tim Kohler explained that while the primary purpose of the SRD grant is to provide income support to a large vulnerable number of people, their research sought to determine if the grant had any other effects.
We know the grant's primary aim, it wasn't designed to do anything else other than just provide income support to a vulnerable group, we found that it indeed improved the labour market outcomes of recipients
Kohler says that receipt of the grant increased a beneficiary's probability of finding a job by approximately three percentage points. They say while this may be a small effect, it is statistically significant.
This research dispels the notion that individuals who receive the SRD grant will be discouraged from seeking employment. However, they acknowledge that the employment effects are larger in the short term and steadily reduce with additional periods of receipt of the grant.
