Why Your SASSA Grant is Showing Pending
South Africans who have applied for Sassa Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grants and received the status “Pending” are perplexed as to what it means for their applications to be considered at this time. The reason for the “Pending” status comes next.
A “Pending” application status from the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) indicates that the client’s request has not yet been granted. This is because the request has not yet been processed. After reviewing all of the information the applicant has provided, the organization has not yet completed the verification process for the applicant’s information.
It is strongly recommended by Sassa that applicants verify the status of their applications for the Social Relief of Distress (SRD) award on a frequent basis. After an application has been submitted, the agency will make sure that the applicant’s name, last name, and identification number are correct by checking with the Department of Home Affairs.
In order to rule out the possibility that applicants are already receiving funding from another source, the applicants’ Social Security numbers are cross-checked against data from government agencies such as the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF), the South African Revenue Service (SARS), and the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS).
A Fraud Risk Scoring algorithm is then utilized on the applicant’s personal information, which may include their identification number and phone number. If their request is granted, they can anticipate receiving their monies through one of numerous mail services, banks, or Cash Send. If their request is denied, they should not expect to receive any funds.
In spite of the fact that the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) is now processing payments of the current cycle of the R350 awards, the application status of a great number of applicants is still listed as “Pending.” According to Sassa, this is due to the fact that the agency is now inundated with application submissions.
Sassa has said that they are working on a remedy to the delay that has occurred in the processing of May applications and has admitted that the delay has occurred. Applicants may have received their payments for the month of July ahead of the installments that were due in May while this was being settled.
The government agency has it in their plans to hand out the payments for the month of May in August. Beneficiaries should be advised that even though Sassa examines each month on its own, they will not receive double or lump sum payments just because they are receiving their May payments in August. This is because Sassa evaluates each month independently.
In order to alleviate the backlogs, Sassa may contact applicants for additional information in order to check the data that was included on their applications.
