The South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) is expected to administer and pay the R350 Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant until at least March 2024.
While permanent Sassa grants beneficiaries have specific payment dates every month, the SRD grant does not have a fixed payment date. Beneficiaries of the SRD grant must wait for an SMS confirming that their money is available for collection.
Many beneficiaries have raised concerns claiming that they have not been receiving grant payments since February 2023.
SRD Grant Payment Delays
Responding to concerns on why some SRD grant payments as of 1 February 2023 have been delayed, Social Development Minister Lindiwe Zulu noted that there are a number of clients that could not be paid due to challenges with their payment method.
Sassa is up to date with all assessments and payments for the Covid-19 SRD grant. There are, however, a number of clients that could not be paid due to challenges with their payment method.
Zulu explained that these challenges include:
- No payment method details provided by the client. All grant recipients are required to upload their payment details.
- Payment method failed verification. “This could be due to incorrect account details or due to the fact that the account does not belong directly to the client.” Clients are required to either correct their details or supply a new payment method.
- The largest area of failed verifications is those who selected payments to their mobile number.
Sassa has urged all clients to log back into system and check for the reason why their application is delayed, then make necessary changes from there.
In addition, she noted that currently there are challenges with the cash send verification process as the contract for this has expired and Sassa is in the process of following a formal procurement process.
Since the vast majority of these assessments fail due to the cell phone numbers provided not being RICA’d, clients are advised to use a different payment channel such as providing their banking details.
Those who have been previously approved and paid through this specific mobile payment channel will continue to be paid.
What Sassa ‘Referred Status’ means
Zulu says there are also a small number of clients whose applications are on “referred status”.
“These are approved applications that cannot be paid due to a challenge with identity verification i.e. ID number has been confirmed to have been used in fraudulent matters such as Identity theft.”
Sassa has advised clients and a process has been put in place for them to confirm their identity through a biometric verification process.
"There are about half a million clients who have not yet complied with FICA requirements on their Postbank accounts. Clients are required to finalise this FICA process or to upload alternative banking details, to enable payments."
Zulu says that because majority of challenges require action on the part of the client, it is not possible to provide a date on when all clients will be paid.
However, once the client’s payment method is corrected by the client, and verified, Sassa will be able to effect payment to the client.
