Hundreds queue for Covid-19 relief grant

HUNDREDS of unemployed people lined up at the Post Office in Durban to collect their R350 grant.

The Covid-19 grant scheme is a monthly payment to unemployed South Africans and refugees who do not receive any other government financial assistance from the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA).

SASSA started disbursing payments around mid-June to the 3.2 million approved applicants.

There are various payment methods, including a direct deposit to a bank account, eWallet or collecting cash from the Post Office.

The Post Office building on Joseph Ndluli Street, in Central Durban has been paying out hundreds of people every day.

SASSA reported that it had received many grievances about the declined R350 grant applications which did not meet the approval requirements.

However, according to the agency, the majority of rejected applications are from people already on the Unemployed Insurance Fund (UIF) database.

ALSO READ:  UIF has R1-billion processed for payment

“There is no fixed payment date for the special Covid-19 SRD (social relief of distress) grant. The applicant will be paid for each month as long as they still meet the qualification criteria. Every month the application will be verified to ensure that the applicant still qualifies for that particular month,” said SASSA in a statement.

Aggrieved parties are advised to contact the Department of Employment and Labour to either apply for UIF or follow up with their applications.

On Tuesday, Statistics South released the unemployment stats for the first quarter of the year (between January to March).

The number of employed persons decreased by 38,000 to 16.4 million and the number of unemployed persons increased by 344,000 to 7.1 million in Q1: 2020 compared to Q4: 2019.

These statistics do not take take into account the job losses suffered after the national lockdown due to the Coronavirus pandemic which began on 26 March.

Caxton Local Media Covid-19 reporting

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