The South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) distributes the Social Relief of Distress (SRD) to more than 5 million people monthly. Despite the large number of people who receive the grant, millions of SRD grant applications get rejected every month.
All the information provided by applicants when applying for the SRD grant is evaluated by Sassa to ensure that applicants are deserving of the grant. If Sassa determines that a person is undeserving of the SRD grant, they will provide a reason why a grant application was rejected.
This SRD grant status can be used by grant applicants to rectify any mistakes or appeal their rejection status. While people are only required to apply for the grant once, you will need to submit a SRD grant appeal for every month your grant application was rejected.
These appeals must be submitted to the Independent Tribunal for Social Assistance Appeals (ITSAA). The body works independently from Sassa and can take up to three months to evaluate appeal applications
The ITSAA explained that if clients fail to submit an appeal, the agency will sustain Sassa's original decision to reject the grant application. This is because if no appeal request is made, it would indicate that the client has accepted the decision made by Sassa to reject their grant application.
“Failure to lodge an appeal for each month that the Covid-19 SRD application was rejected by SASSA will result in the original decision being sustained,” said the ITSSA.
The decision of the ITSSA is the final and no further internal recourse will be available. However, the applicant may approach the High Court for judicial review within 180 days should they be satisfied with the decision.
