SASSA r350 Grant Payments Delay News
In todays latest SASSA News – The Grant, administered by SASSA on behalf of the Department of Social Development (DSD), has been extended until March 2023 as a result of the sluggish economic recovery.
Sassa has experienced a number of problems in paying eligible residents since the grant’s adoption in 2020, prompting the government to make a number of adjustments to the criteria for who is eligible to receive the grant.
During the discussion of the Social Relief of Distress Grant progress report, Minister of Social Development Lindiwe Zulu stated that R44 billion was allocated to serve 10.5 billion of the 10.9 billion qualifying beneficiaries when the third iteration of the grant was implemented and that this funding would last until the end of March 2023.
It took an extra two months to get the grant fully implemented because of certain major problems that arose in the first three months.
She also notes that the department is legally obligated to stay within the allotted budget, therefore the shortage forced the introduction of the first new qualifying criteria for the grant.
“This includes setting the minimum income requirement for eligibility at R350. This was put into action by conducting monthly bank account checks on all applicants to ensure they were earning R350 or more.
According to Zulu, the DSD faced significant difficulties as a result of the evaluation because they had to negotiate with banks in order to conduct these means checks, and banks will always prioritize protecting their customers.
The department recently announced that the threshold for the means test would be raised from R350 to R624. Many folks were confused because they assumed the grant payment had been increased because of the rise.
According to Zulu, the poor takeup of the award, which is lower than the projected amount, was the biggest problem the department encountered.
Despite “an increasing number of hungry and troubled people in the communities,” she insists that “the unspent money must be returned to National Treasury.”
The Department of Social Development and Sassa anticipate more recipients of the grant as a result of the raised criteria.
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