Committee Chairperson Bridget Masango urged affected beneficiaries to switch to the Postbank black card promptly.
Please get your black cards within this extended period to avoid the unbearable consequences of not accessing your grant without a black card,
Sassa distributes over 18 million permanent grants monthly, including the Older Persons pension, Disability grant, War Veterans grant, Care Dependency grant, Foster Child grant, Child Support grant, Child Support Top-Up, and the Grant-in-Aid.
More than 3 million beneficiaries used Sassa gold cards to access their grants. With over a million now affected by expiry, Postbank has confirmed that these cards must be replaced with black cards by the end of May 2025. The two-month extension granted in March is final.
There will be no alternative means for beneficiaries to access their grants when the two months lapse,
Postbank has also advised beneficiaries not to use Post Offices to collect their grants, a temporary option that has now been withdrawn.
Beneficiaries are urged to know that cardless services are no longer available and no beneficiaries have been registered for cardless services,
The rollout of the Postbank black cards began in 2024 with assurances that no gold cards would expire until all beneficiaries received new cards. However, in early 2025, Sassa confirmed that gold cards would become invalid from the end of February. Following pressure from stakeholders, the expiry date was extended to 20 March 2025 and then again to the end of May.
Despite the extension, Parliament has raised concerns about the inefficient rollout of the new black cards, with criticism directed at Postbank for delays and poor planning.
