Elderly persons, disabled and war veterans urged to apply for grant-in-aid

The South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) urges frail recipients of old-age, disability and war veterans’ grant to visit Sassa offices to apply for a grant-in-aid.

One of Sassa’s primary objectives is to conduct awareness to teach families with frail grant recipients to apply for this additional grant at their offices.

According to Senzeni Ngubeni, Sassa’s spokesperson, the grant is meant to assist in paying extra medical bills, nutritious food and extra services, among other things.

“To qualify, the applicant must receive an old-age grant, disability grant or a war veteran’s grant,” said Ngubeni.

“They must not be cared for in an institution that receives a subsidy from the state. Applicants who do not have an ID, smart ID or birth certificate for the children involved in the application can still apply for a grant, but must check with their nearest Sassa office on which alternative documents are accepted for grant applications,” he said.

Should the application be approved, beneficiaries will start getting payments within three months. The payments will be backdated to the day the application for the grant was completed.

“The grant-in-aid will be cancelled if the beneficiary is no longer in the care of another person, if they die, or if they get admitted to a state institution, and if the income or assets improve so much that they no longer qualify in terms of the means test,” he said.

For more information, contact their customer care unit on 013 754 9363/9439/9428 or their toll-free number on 080 060 1011 from 8am to 4pm, from Monday to Friday.