The South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) has announced that Sassa gold cards will continue to function normally in 2024. This will come as welcome news for the 19 million grant recipients who use their gold cards to access their social grants monthly.
Sassa distributes 19 million permanent grants which include the Older Persons pension grant, Disability grant, War Veterans grant, Care Dependency grant, Foster Child grant, Child Support grant, Child Support grant Top-Up and Grant-in-aid.
Recipients of grants will be able to use their Sassa gold cards, even if it expires in 2024 to access their grant money.
Sassa was compelled to make this announcement as they became aware of several rumours stating that grant recipients will not be paid their social grants as their gold cards are expiring. This is not the case.
Postbank spokesperson Bongani Diako assured all Sassa grant beneficiaries that they will continue to be paid their social grants in December and beyond. They also called on beneficiaries to be aware of scammers this festive season.
Sassa beneficiaries are urged to rest easy, stay at home and ignore anyone that calls them to any venues under the pretext that the SASSA gold cards are expired and they should change their cards
Sassa Extends Validity Of Gold Cards
Earlier this year it was revealed that there are approximately 5.3 million cards due for replacement by 31 December 2023. Many of these Sassa gold cards had already expired.
An announcement from Sassa indicated that beneficiaries could continue using expired Sassa cards until the end of December 2023. Sassa extended the validity of all gold cards.
In November 2023, the Postbank announced that beneficiaries would no longer need to renew their Sassa gold cards. This announcement meant that all gold cards would function normally for paying social grants beyond December 2023 and would continue to work in 2024.
This important development means that millions of social grant beneficiaries do not have to change their SASSA Gold Cards to the cards of the other banks.
It is believed that the extension of the Sassa Gold Cards' validity ensures continuity for Sassa beneficiaries, and they do not have to endure the inconvenience and expenses of changing their Sassa Gold Cards to other grant payment methods that are often costly.
Sassa Gold Cards offer various transaction benefits, such as free withdrawals in retail shops and free statements, empowering beneficiaries and saving on transaction costs.
