Grants to increase temporarily due to Covid-19
Sassa recipients to receive a little bit extra in their grant payments as Covid-19 continues to keep the country in lockdown.
Existing recipients of Sassa grants are to receive top-ups as part of government’s socio-economic relief measures.
Caretakers, grant recipients and civil society organisations have been pleading with the Department of Social Development to ensure that those on grants can continue to afford essential goods and services as the lockdown persists.
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On April 29, Minister of the Department of Social Development Lindiwe Zulu announced that those receiving grants from the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) will receive additional financial relief in the form of top-ups.
The relief measure is part of a line of socio-economic relief measures which are being finalised to reduce the impact of the pandemic on households and the most vulnerable in our communities.
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The Minister stated the following will be applied as from May 2020 for those receiving social grants by Sassa:
This will happen automatically and there is no need for people to go through an application process.
- An increase of R300 for the child support grant to be paid in May 2020 per child (once-off payment).
- From June to October 2020, a R500 grant will be paid to caregivers of children on the child support grant. The amount per child will revert to R440 per month from June. All existing caregivers will automatically qualify and receive this benefit along with the existing child support grant monthly benefit.
- All other existing social grants are to be increased by R250 per month from May to October 2020.
“These increases will result in the department and Sassa paying out R20-billion during the May payment cycle to 11.3 million recipients and benefiting 18.6 million people, including children,” said Zulu.
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“In many poor households, social grants are the only source of income and these increases will go a long way to ensure that these families do meet their basic livelihood needs.”
The Minister also explained that they will be rearranging the nature in which payments of grants are made to ensure everyone has as close to a stress-free experience as possible.
“From May onwards, we will be staggering the payment of social grants to avoid large numbers of people at South African Post Office premises, retailers and ATMs.
“This is in line with the disaster management plan regulations,” Zulu said.
The state’s security cluster has been asked to assist with crowd management during the peak payment period while the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs has been requested to relax regulations for the use of community halls for social grant payments.
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