Frustrated R350 relief grant applicants disappointed with Sassa’s slow services

TimesLIVE

6 years ago

Sassa has paid the R350 grant to only 116,867 people Image: South African Gov‏ via Twitter

Frustrated South Africans have once again expressed disappointment with the SA Social Security Agency (Sassa) after still not having received their R350 Covid-19 relief grant payments for May.

The R350 grant is meant for unemployed citizens and qualifying foreign citizens during the lockdown. It was announced in April by President Cyril Ramaphosa and qualifying applicants were told that they would be paid by the end of the month.

However, not all payments were made.

“Payments were made from May 15, meaning not all payments will go through today but certainly this month.

“If you have gone through the application process, please wait for a response from Sassa. It takes a bit of time but you will be contacted. We will revert to you whether your application is successful or not,” Sassa said on May 26.

On Tuesday, Sassa announced that just over 116,000 applicants have been paid the grant so far.

Sassa CEO Busisiwe Memela said the agency received 13-million enquiries and applications as of Monday, May 25.

According to Memela, just over 6-million of the applications received were valid, complete applications. Others were duplicates, incomplete, or had inconsistent data.

“About 1,236 492 applications are still being finalised through verification by the SA Revenue Service (Sars) to confirm if the applicants have an income.

“A total of 666 381 clients were approved and Sassa is awaiting their banking details, while more than 1,597,127 are disapproved as the applicants have some means of income,” she said in a statement.

Taking to Twitter on Wednesday, frustrated and impatient applicants slammed the agency for its slow services and demanded answers for late payments.

In response, the agency said there was no fixed date for the grant.

“There is no fixed date for the Covid-19 special grant, the applicant will be paid for each month as long as they still meet the qualification criteria.

“Each month the application will be verified to ensure that the applicant still qualifies for that particular month.”

By Unathi Nkanjeni- TimesLIVE