SASSA News on declined 2022 Payments

SASSA News on declined 2022 Payments

In todays latest SASSA News – More than 13.5 million people in South Africa applied for the Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant, according to the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa). Far fewer people have been approved to receive the emergency aid.

The Department of Social Development (DSD) informed lawmakers that between 7.4 and 7.6 million people get SRD grant payments each month during a briefing. For the month of January 2023, 84% of those who were approved to receive SRD grant payments actually received those funds.

Since April 2022, with the exception of January 2023, the share of recipients of the SRD grant has been declining.

SRD Grant Payments Received Monthly As A Percentage Of Authorized Grant Recipients

• In April 2022, funds were dispersed to 95.38 percent of verified recipients.
• In May of 2022, payments were made to 94.91% of approved beneficiaries.
• In June of 2022, payments were made to 94.44 percent of verified recipients.
• Payouts to qualified recipients reached 92.51 percent in July 2022.
• August 2022 saw payments made to 89.08% of verified recipients.
• In September 2022, payments were made to 88.37% of verified recipients.
• In October 2022, payments were made to 87.16 percent of verified recipients.
• In November 2022, payments were made to 83.88 percent of verified recipients.
• In December of 2022, 83.21 percent of verified recipients received their funds.
• In January 2023, 83.8 percent of beneficiaries who had been accepted for payment had already received their money.

There were many factors that contributed to the delay in distributing SRD grant funds. Problems with conducting verification procedures caused payments to be held up, according to the DSD.

When grant recipients update their payment information, Sassa must do new verification checks. Although these financial institution verifications were still in progress, grant recipients were not compensated. Due to issues with some bank accounts, the bank had to return some payments.

ID verification issues also prevented payment to those who had their applications for SRD grants approved.

After each pay period ends, the DSD reports to Congress that payments from the previous month’s pay period will be made. Since April 2022, an average of 90% to 95% of monthly payments have been made to customers.

Members were worried about potential two-month delays in grant payments, poor communication from the relevant parties, and misleading information spread by rivals.

Sassa admitted before the committee on Social Development that they should have communicated more effectively, but they were working to enhance their procedures to reduce the possibility of future delays and had a plan in place to do so.