Another social grants disaster hits 100,000 beneficiaries

Mass confusion over the old versus new social grants cards, who is paying what into which account, PIN numbers failing to work, insufficient cash at pay points, robberies and late deliveries of cash were just some of the problems experienced by about 100 000 grant beneficiaries at the end of September.

Along with cases of frozen accounts, compromised accounts which could not be recovered, trapped or blocked money in old accounts, the list of problems with the switchover to the SA Social Security Agency (Sassa) from Net1’s Cash PayMaster Services (CPS)-EasyPay Everywhere (EPE) keeps growing.

CPS said yesterday it would investigate the allegations, as well as those being made by Tracy Lomax, who told The Citizen that money was put into her sister’s CPS card.

Lomax said: “When an attempt to draw the money was made, the account was then frozen.

“CPS then said either the incorrect pin had been used, which in our case we know it didn’t happen, but I have ascertained from the Black Sash there are about 100 000 people who have been affected by this.

“My sister is mentally handicapped, we haven’t had a curator bonis appointed because she lives with my folks and it’s not been an issue. CPS won’t do anything unless I get an affidavit from my sister. I’m not prepared to do that because she doesn’t have the capacity to sign and any other attorney would do the same thing.”

She added that the grant was less than R2 000, but because her parents were also pensioners, every cent counted.

There were also complaints received by the Black Sash of people feeling “bullied” into taking the CPS card, and reports of Sassa withdrawing from some pay points leaving CPS to take over.

A report received by Black Sash said EPE was making green card holders fill in the “request for bank payment” forms when they collected their grants at pay points, including “even those who have the card for years in order to meet the requirement from Sassa regarding consent.

“The challenge is that EPE wants to submit the bulk annexure Cs on behalf of clients while Sassa states it is their requirement that a beneficiary must come in personally to submit [the] said form and that they will not accept the form from any third parties,” said Black Sash’s Amanda Ismail.

She was also concerned EPE card holders were not being informed of bank charges, ranging between R7 to R13.

“If money is swiped from the account, where the beneficiary, under oath swears that they never accessed it, there is no fair resolution but the beneficiary stands to lose,” said another report from Black Sash. “I find this to be unacceptable, subject to correction, it is below the standard operation procedure within the banking practice and space.”

– amandaw@citizen.co.za

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