Over 100,000 people receive R350 payment, more applications processed

The South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) has confirmed that more than 100,000 unemployed South Africans in May received R350 in the form of the special Covid-19 social relief of distress grant.

The 116,867 people were part of 13 million applications received. However, only 6.3 million of these were valid and completed applications.

Sassa spokesperson Paseka Letsatsi said more than 3.5 million applicants had been checked to confirm if they were either active Sassa grant recipients, were on the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) database or received a National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) stipend.

“We received approximately 13 million enquiries/applications about the temporary special Covid-19 grant as at Monday, 25 May 2020.

“About 6.3 million of these were valid, complete applications. The rest were either duplicate applications, incomplete, had inconsistent data, or were just pure enquiries,” said Busisiwe Memela, Sassa’s chief executive.

The agency said a further 1.2 million clients were being finalised through verification by the South African Revenue Service (Sars) to confirm if they had an income.

“A total of 666,381 clients have been approved and Sassa is awaiting banking details information. Over 1,597,127 have been disapproved, since the applicants have some or other means of income,” read the statement.

The agency urged applicants to respond immediately to the SMS received from Sassa and to provide their banking details through the secure link.

“This will enable Sassa to ensure payments are processed without delay to all eligible applicants. Citizens are reminded that there is no cut-off date for applications for this special relief grant.  Anyone who meets the qualifying criteria should lodge an application without delay,” said Letsatsi.

Meanwhile, Sassa said it had successfully implemented the increase of the child support grant by R300 per child and an additional R500 per caregiver from June to October 2020.

All other existing grants were increased by R250 per month from May to October 2020.

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