EXPLAINED: How Sassa grants will be paid from February

The South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) has provided information on how grant payments will work in February amid calls by civil society organisations to extend the R350 Covid-19 Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant beyond 31 January 2021.

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The SRD grant was extended last year by the Department of Social Development, to run from 1 November 2020 until the end of January.

• According to Sassa, no new applications for the SRD grant would be considered after 31 January. But this doesn’t mean the payments will stop for recipients who are still owed money by the agency.
• The cut-off date for recipients to lodge an appeal regarding Sassa’s decision to decline their SRD grant is 28 February 2021.
• This is only for applications lodged during the extension period of the SRD grant from November 2020 to January this year.
• Declined clients can still visit the Sassa website to lodge their Covid-19 SRD grant appeals or call the call centre 0800-601-011.
• If you don’t appeal, you will not be reconsidered for the grant.
• Clients who have already submitted their appeals don’t need to reapply or contact the Sassa offices as they will be sent an outcome via SMS.

February grant payments

• Older persons’ grants will be paid from 3 February 2021.
• Disability grants will be paid from 4 February 2021.
• All other grants will be paid from 5 February 2021.

Expiry of the Sassa-Sapo cards

At the same time, Sassa on Friday refuted claims circulating on social media about the expiry of the Sassa/South African Post Office (Sapo) card on 31 March 2021.

Sassa said in a statement this was simply not true.

“The cards will have to be replaced, as indicated by the SA Reserve Bank report but there is no set date by which time this must be done. Information on the card replacement will be made public in due course,” read the statement.

“Sassa clients have the right to choose their payment method and there is nothing that forces the clients who are currently being paid through the South Africa Post Office to change to bank accounts. They will still be paid using the current Sassa-Sapo card beyond April 2021.”

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