The South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) has revealed that social grant beneficiaries will be able to continue accessing their grants even if their Sassa Gold Card has expired. Grant beneficiaries can continue using their expired Sassa/Postbank gold cards until 31 December 2023.
So if you have an expired Sassa/Postbank Gold Card, you can rest assured that you will still receive your grants money without any disruption until the end of 2023
Sassa welcomed the decision from the Payment Association of South Africa (PASA) to extend the validity of expired cards for social grant payment transactions at ATMs and retailers.
The agency said the extension of the validity of Sassa gold cards is great news for its beneficiaries. The extension means grant beneficiaries can continue using cards as they have done until the end of 2023.
PASA has sent correspondence to all acquiring banks to ensure they are ready to accept expired SASSA/Postbank Gold Cards, and Postbank has concluded its own preparations
Beneficiaries can continue collecting their grant payment at their usual collection points and using their expired Sassa gold cards at retail stores. These retail stores include Checkers, Shoprite, Usave, OK, Pick n Pay, Boxer and other participating retailers.
Social grants recipients using the expired Sassa/Postbank Gold Cards can enjoy using these cards within all the National payments System points that include ATMs, POS purchases as well as Post Office branches and SASSA physical cash payment points.
Sassa grant beneficiaries will also continue to receive three free purchase transactions per month.
Postbank Spokesperson Bongani Diako says they were able to renew more than 900,000 Sassa gold cards over the past two months. However, they had to introduce a cardless grant payment method to ensure beneficiaries continue receiving their money as many were unable to renew their gold cards.
The Postbank will continue replacing Sassa/Postbank gold cards before the end of the year. This is in line with the directive of the South African Reserve Bank to issue all grant beneficiaries with a new Sassa card.
Diako explained that they were instructed to replace all Sassa gold cards that were in circulation by the end of 2023.
The message that should go out to the Sassa beneficiaries is to carry on enjoying using the Sassa gold card until December up until we call you in your local area at your convenience and we issue you a new card
Grant beneficiaries will be notified when they are required to collect a new Sassa/Postbank gold card. While they await this notification, they can continue using their expired gold cards as they have done in the past.
